Red-Tailed Hawk (Buteo jamaicensis): Facts and Identification

Appearance and identification

The red-tailed hawk is a buteo, a group of chunky, broad-winged hawks built for soaring. It has a heavy body, a fairly small head, broad and rounded wings and a short, wide tail. The bill is short, dark and hooked, and the cere (the bare skin at the base of the bill), legs and feet are yellow.

Most adults are dark brown above and pale below, with three useful field marks:

• Red tail. The upper side of the adult’s tail is uniformly brick-red, with a thin dark band near the tip. From below it looks pale orange-buff.
• Belly band. A band of dark streaks runs across the belly, below a paler chest.
• Patagial bar. In flight from below, a dark bar on the leading edge of each wing, between the shoulder and the “wrist,” is one of the best marks for this species.

Plumage varies more than in almost any other North American bird of prey. Western birds come in light, intermediate (rufous) and dark morphs, and dark birds can look almost chocolate-brown all over. Krider’s red-tails of the northern Great Plains are very pale, sometimes with a whitish tail, while Harlan’s hawk of Alaska and northwest Canada is blackish and white, with a tail that may be gray, white or mottled rather than red. Harlan’s hawk is sometimes treated as a separate species, but most authorities count it as one of about 14 subspecies.

Young red-tails do not have a red tail. Their tails are brown with several narrow dark bars, and their eyes are pale yellow. The iris slowly darkens to brown over three to four years. Telling red-tails from similar species is covered in our hawks of North America guide.

Size: how big is a red-tailed hawk?

The red-tailed hawk is one of the largest hawks in North America. As in most birds of prey, females are larger than males, typically about 25% heavier.

Weight varies with sex, region and season. Measured averages are around 840 g (1.85 lb) for males and 1,040 g (2.3 lb) for females, with northern migrants tending to be heavier than birds from the tropics. For a sense of scale, a bald eagle weighs three to five times as much; see eagle vs hawk.

Habitat and range

The red-tailed hawk breeds from central Alaska and northern Canada south through the United States and Mexico to Panama, and on Caribbean islands including Jamaica, Cuba, Hispaniola and Puerto Rico. The scientific name jamaicensis comes from the first specimen described, which was from Jamaica.

It uses an exceptionally wide range of habitats: grasslands, farmland, deserts, mountains, open woodland, forest edges, tropical highlands, roadsides and city parks. Its ideal habitat is open country for hunting mixed with tall trees, cliffs or poles for perching and nesting. The main places it avoids are unbroken dense forest and the high Arctic.

The species has benefited from human changes to the landscape. Forest clearing in the East created open hunting ground, tree planting on the Great Plains created nest sites, and highways lined with poles and fences gave it perfect hunting perches.

Diet and hunting

Red-tailed hawks are carnivores and opportunistic hunters. Rodents usually form the bulk of the diet, often up to about 85% of prey, including voles, mice, rats, pocket gophers, chipmunks, ground squirrels and tree squirrels. Rabbits and hares are also important, and the hawks take birds such as pigeons, quail and starlings, as well as snakes, lizards, frogs, crayfish and large insects. They will eat carrion in hard times, especially in winter.

The classic hunting method is perch-hunting. The hawk sits on a tall tree, pole or fence post, watches the ground, then glides down to seize prey with its powerful talons. It also hunts while soaring or hangs in the wind in a hover, called kiting, before dropping onto prey. Pairs sometimes hunt together, for example approaching a tree squirrel from both sides of a trunk. In captivity in winter, a red-tail eats about 135 g (4.8 oz) of food a day. Our article what do hawks eat? compares its diet with that of other hawks.

Voice: the famous movie scream

The red-tailed hawk’s call is a hoarse, rasping scream lasting two to three seconds, often written kee-eeee-arr, that starts high and slurs downward. Birds call most loudly when an intruder, such as another hawk or a person near the nest, enters the territory.

This dramatic cry is used so often in films, TV shows and advertisements that many people think it is the call of the bald eagle. Real bald eagles give much weaker, high-pitched chirps and whistles, so sound editors usually substitute the red-tail’s scream.

Nests and breeding

Red-tailed hawks first breed at about two years old. Pairs are usually monogamous and stay together for many years on the same territory, which may cover about 1.3–5.2 km² (0.5–2 sq mi) depending on food supply. In courtship, the pair soars in wide circles while calling, and the male makes steep dives and climbs, sometimes briefly touching the female’s talons with his own.

Both birds build a bulky stick nest, usually high in a tall tree 4–21 m (13–69 ft) above the ground, on a cliff ledge or on a structure such as a building, billboard or transmission tower. Nests are typically 71–97 cm (28–38 in) across and can be up to 90 cm (3 ft) tall, lined with bark strips and fresh greenery.

• Clutch: usually 2–3 eggs (range 1–5), laid in spring.
• Incubation: about 28–35 days, shared by both parents.
• Fledging: young leave the nest at about 42–46 days old.
• Independence: they begin catching their own prey about 6–7 weeks after fledging.

Migration

The red-tailed hawk is a partial migrant. Birds from Canada and Alaska mostly move south for the winter, while many in the United States, Mexico and Central America stay on their territories all year. Unlike broad-winged hawks, red-tails usually migrate alone rather than in big flocks, on days with helpful winds.

Autumn counts at hawk watch sites can be large: Hawk Ridge in Duluth, Minnesota, has recorded up to about 15,000 red-tails in a single season, and Derby Hill in New York has counted up to 19,000 in spring. Read more in do hawks migrate?.

Lifespan, predators and threats

Like most birds of prey, red-tailed hawks face their biggest risk in their first year, and most die before they are two years old. Those that survive can live a long time: banding records show wild red-tails living close to 30 years, and captive birds have lived about 30 years. See how long do hawks live? for more on survival.

Adults have few natural predators, although great horned owls kill hawks of all ages and also take over red-tail nests. Eggs and nestlings can be lost to owls, crows, ravens and raccoons. Leading human-related causes of death include collisions with vehicles, electrocution on power poles, illegal shooting and secondary poisoning from eating rodents killed with rat poison.

Conservation status

The red-tailed hawk is listed as Least Concern on the IUCN Red List (most recently assessed in 2024). Its population is large, estimated in the millions, and has grown over recent decades in much of North America. It is protected in the United States, Canada and Mexico under migratory bird laws.

Red-tails were once widely shot as “chicken hawks,” and DDT affected them far less than peregrine falcons and bald eagles in the mid-20th century, largely because they feed mostly on rodents rather than on birds and fish. Legal protection since the 1970s has helped the species thrive.

Red-tailed hawks and people

Red-tailed hawks are a familiar sight on highway light posts and fence posts, and many people see one on almost any long drive. They have also settled in cities. The best-known urban red-tail, Pale Male, arrived in New York’s Central Park in 1991 and nested for many years on the facade of an apartment building at 927 Fifth Avenue. When the building removed the nest in 2004, public protests led to it being restored. He became the subject of books and documentaries and died in 2023.

The red-tailed hawk is the bird most often used by beginning falconers in the United States, because it is common, hardy and easily trained. Its feathers, especially the red tail feathers, are sacred to many Native American peoples and are used in ceremonies under the same federal rules that cover eagle feathers.

Myths and facts

• Myth: red-tailed hawks are a threat to chickens. The old name “chicken hawk” is misleading. Red-tails rarely take adult chickens, and their diet is dominated by rodents that farmers consider pests.
• Myth: the scream in movies belongs to the bald eagle. It is almost always a red-tailed hawk.
• Fact: the red tail takes years to appear. Young birds have brown, banded tails until their first molt, at about one year old.
• Fact: hawks and falcons are not close relatives. Red-tails belong to the same family as eagles, while falcons are closer to parrots. See falcon vs hawk.