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Red-tailed Hawk, Bulky Bird
Dark head, light bib, shaped like a football!
© Peggy Cadigan
The Red-tailed Hawk is the most common and widespread hawk in North America. Red-tails often perch on fence posts in rural areas or even atop lights along the roadway. Watch for a large, bulky, football-shaped bird with a small dark head and a rusty-red tail. These hawks visit open fields to feast on the abundant populations of rodents and wintering shorebirds.
BirdNote®
Red-tailed Hawk, Bulky Bird
Written by Frances Wood
This is BirdNote!
[“Keeeerrr” sound of Red-Tailed Hawk]
If you hear this sound coming down from the heavens, look up! You’ll see a hawk soaring in a wide circle, eyeing the landscape — including you. This one’s a Red-tailed Hawk. [“Keeeerrr” sound of Red-Tailed Hawk]
These hawks often perch on fence posts or telephone poles in rural areas, or atop lights along the highway. Watch for a large, football-shaped bird with a small, dark head and a rusty-red tail. Immature Red-tails and some adult birds don’t actually have a red tail, so it helps to learn to recognize their size and shape.
Once you’re familiar with the sound of the Red-tail [“Keeeerrr” sound of Red-Tailed Hawk], you’ll discover how often movie-makers get it wrong. On the screen, you may see a Bald Eagle, but what you hear is often the call of a Red-tail.
[“Keeeerrr” sound of Red-Tailed Hawk]
Red-tailed Hawks visit open fields, roadsides, and highway medians to feast on voles, rabbits, and other small mammals.
[“Keeeerrr” sound of Red-Tailed Hawk]
Next time you’re driving in the country, watch for a bulky, football-shaped bird. And you just might hear this sound wafting down from on high.
[“Keeeerrr” sound of Red-Tailed Hawk]
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Call of Red-tailed Hawk provided by: The Macaulay Library of Natural Sounds at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, Ithaca, New York.
Sound recordist: L.J. Peyton
Producer: John Kessler
Executive Producer: Chris Peterson © 2010 Tune In to Nature.org March 2010 / 2021
ID # orig 032905RTHAKPLU RTHA-01b
Preston, C. R. and R. D. Beane. 2009. Red-tailed Hawk (Buteo jamaicensis), The Birds of North America Online (A. Poole, Ed.). Ithaca: Cornell Lab of Ornithology; Retrieved from the Birds of North America Online: https://birdsoftheworld.org/bow/species/rethaw/cur/introduction
Frances Wood
Writer
Michael Stein
NarratorSights & Sounds
