Eagle vs Hawk: Key Differences in Size, Shape and Prey

Key differences at a glance

Eagles and hawks are close relatives, so the difference is one of degree rather than a sharp scientific line. In everyday use:

• Eagles are the largest and most powerful members of the family. They have massive bills, very long and broad wings and thick legs with large talons.
• Hawks are small to medium-sized. They have relatively smaller bills and either broad, rounded wings for soaring (buteos) or short wings and a long tail for twisting chases through trees (accipiters).

In North America the comparison is easy, because the only eagles, the bald eagle and the golden eagle, are far larger than any hawk. Elsewhere the picture is messier, since some small eagles are lighter than the largest hawks.

Same family, different branches

Eagles and hawks belong to the family Accipitridae, together with kites, harriers and Old World vultures. Falcons are a separate family, despite looking similar; see falcon vs hawk.

“Eagle” is not a single natural group. Genetic studies show that eagles evolved several times within the family. Sea eagles, including the bald eagle, are closely related to kites, while booted eagles such as the golden eagle, which have feathered legs, form a separate branch. The tropical harpy eagle belongs to yet another group. What these birds share is a large size and similar lifestyle, not a single common ancestor that all other hawks lack.

“Hawk” is also a loose term. In North America it covers both buteos, such as the red-tailed hawk, and accipiters, such as Cooper’s and sharp-shinned hawks. In Britain and Europe, buteos are usually called buzzards, and “hawk” mainly means accipiters such as the sparrowhawk and goshawk.

Size and shape

Size is the clearest difference. Typical figures for wild adults:

Shape helps when size is hard to judge in the sky. An eagle’s wings are long and broad from base to tip, like a flat plank, with long separated “fingers” at the ends. Its head projects well in front of the wings because of the big bill. A red-tailed hawk has shorter, more rounded wings and a broad, fan-shaped tail, and an accipiter looks small-winged and long-tailed.

Bill, feet and hunting

Eagles have deep, heavy bills that can tear apart large prey, and thick legs with long talons that grip fish, hares or birds the size of ducks and geese. Hawks have proportionally smaller bills and slimmer feet suited to smaller prey.

Diets reflect this. Bald eagles eat mainly fish, waterbirds and carrion, and golden eagles hunt hares, rabbits, ground squirrels and marmots. Red-tailed hawks take mostly rodents such as voles, mice and squirrels, plus rabbits, snakes and some birds, while accipiters specialize in catching songbirds and doves in flight. For more on hawk diets, see what do hawks eat?.

Eagles also scavenge and steal far more than most hawks. A bald eagle will happily take a fish from an osprey or a rabbit from a hawk, saving itself the work of hunting.

Flight and behavior

Both eagles and buteo hawks soar on rising warm air, but they look different doing it. Eagles fly with slow, deep, powerful wingbeats and soar steadily for long periods, often very high up. Red-tailed hawks flap faster and often hover briefly or “kite” in the wind over a field. Accipiters fly with a quick flap-flap-glide rhythm and dash through woodland after prey.

The two often interact. Hawks frequently mob eagles, diving at them to drive them out of their territory, and eagles may steal hawk prey. In one well-known case in British Columbia in 2017, a pair of bald eagles brought a red-tailed hawk chick to their nest, apparently as food, but the chick was raised alongside the eaglets and fledged successfully.

How to tell a bald eagle from a red-tailed hawk

These are the two big raptors most often confused in North America:

• Adult bald eagle: dark brown body with a white head and tail; looks huge and dark at a distance; flat wings.
• Juvenile bald eagle: mostly brown with messy white patches, but still far larger than a hawk, with a huge head and bill.
• Red-tailed hawk: usually pale below with a dark band across the belly and a dark bar along the front edge of the underwing; adults have a brick-red tail. Often perches on poles beside highways.

The calls are different too. The red-tailed hawk gives the long, harsh scream that films often use for eagles, while real bald eagles chirp and whistle. For more ways to identify hawks, see hawks of North America.

Eagles and hawks in Europe

European readers meet a different cast. The largest eagle in Europe is the white-tailed eagle, the bald eagle’s close cousin, with a wingspan of up to about 2.4 m (8 ft); it was reintroduced to Scotland from 1975 and more recently to the Isle of Wight in England. The golden eagle breeds in mountains from Scotland and Scandinavia to the Alps and Spain.

Europe also has small and medium-sized eagles that blur the line with hawks, such as the booted eagle, the short-toed snake eagle and the lesser spotted eagle. The commonest birds of prey, however, are the common buzzard, the Eurasian sparrowhawk and the northern goshawk. A soaring common buzzard is often mistaken for an eagle, but it is much smaller, with a shorter tail and a rounder head. For identification tips, see birds of prey in the UK.

Which is stronger, faster and longer-lived?

Eagles are stronger. A large eagle can kill prey several times heavier than anything a red-tailed hawk can tackle, and in direct conflicts the eagle usually wins. Hawks are more agile, especially accipiters, which can turn sharply through trees.

Neither is the fastest bird of prey; that title goes to the peregrine falcon in a dive. Eagles live longer: wild bald eagles commonly live 20 years or more, with a record of 38, while most red-tailed hawks live less than 10 years, although the oldest known one reached about 30.