Red-shouldered Hawk
© Alan Murphy
Buteo lineatus
Family: (Accipitridae) Hawks and Allies
Preferred Habitat: Moist deciduous woodlands and forests; often near water.
Seasonal Occurrence: Common throughout the year. Breeds in our area.
Notes by Meghan Anne: The Red-shouldered Hawk is a fantastic Texas resident to look for this summer. You will find them in the eastern half of Texas in deciduous woodlands, particularly near swamps and rivers. Look for a medium-sized hawk with black-and-white checkered wings, a banded tail, and reddish barring on the chest. Juveniles are brownish overall with streaked underparts.
You can find them perched near water, at the edge of a clearing, on a pole, or soaring high above. You will probably be first alerted to them by their call, a rising whistle 'kee-ahh' repeated about 5-12 times. When you look up you might see the reddish coloring on the leading underside of the wing, but the key distinguishing characteristic of the Red-shouldered Hawk in flight is the translucent crescents near the wingtips (see photo below).
Their diet includes small mammals, reptiles, amphibians, and occasionally birds from feeders. They hunt from mid-level perches in trees or by the edge of a pond where they sit silently, descending swiftly once they spot their prey. They are also very aggressive in their territory, attacking intruding crows, owls and other hawks. As you listen for this hawk, beware, Blue Jays are very good at impersonating their call!
Profile by Grace Yaros: These boldly marked hawks are as fierce as they are handsome. Adult Red-shouldered Hawks are distinctive, with bright reddish-brown chests and bellies, brown heads, and bold black-and-white wings with red shoulder patches. Immature birds are brown above and white below with broad brown streaks concentrated around the chest. They are smaller and more slender than Red-tailed Hawks and can be distinguished by their more heavily streaked underparts (eastern Red-tailed Hawks are mostly white below with variable brown streaks that give them a “belted” appearance). Immature Red-shouldered Hawks are rather similar in appearance to immature Broad-winged Hawks. Red-shouldered Hawks have proportionally longer tails and more rounded wings, as opposed to the pointed wingtips of Broad-winged Hawks. Red-shouldered Hawks of all ages have translucent, crescent-shaped patches near the tips of their wings that are visible in flight from below. Their loud “Kee-ah!” calls are commonly heard in early spring and are used to advertise and defend a territory (Blue Jays are known to imitate these calls, though the exact reason is unknown; perhaps to announce the presence of a nearby hawk or to scare other birds from a food source).
There are two distinct populations: one in eastern North America that is found from southeastern Canada south to Florida and the Gulf Coast and extending as far west as the eastern edges of the Great Plains, and one that is found on the West Coast from northern California south through Baja California. Western birds have darker red underparts than eastern birds, and a subspecies found in Florida is quite pale orange below, with a pale grayish head. Birds that breed near the northernmost edge of their range migrate south to spend the winter in northern Mexico, but other populations are nonmigratory.
Red-shouldered Hawks are found in a variety of forested habitats, from large, mature forests to suburban areas with nearby woodlands. They eat a variety of different prey items, including small rodents, snakes, frogs, and other birds. They are common and widespread, though the loss and fragmentation of mature forests have certainly negatively impacted this species. They can be found in wooded areas throughout the Houston area, including Edith L. Moore Nature Sanctuary, as well as Smith Oaks Bird Sanctuary and Boy Scout Woods Bird Sanctuary in High Island.
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Cornell Lab of Ornithology
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Bird Guide
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Bird Library
© Greg Lavaty, www.texastargetbirds.com
© Greg Lavaty, www.texastargetbirds.com
© Greg Lavaty, www.texastargetbirds.com
Notice the translucent, crescent-shaped patches near the tips of the wings.
© Greg Lavaty, www.texastargetbirds.com
