Hawks of North America: Identification Guide to Common Species

What counts as a hawk?

In North America, “hawk” is used for many medium-sized birds of prey in the family Accipitridae, which also includes eagles and kites. The broad-winged hawks of the genus Buteo are called buzzards in Europe, which is why the rough-legged hawk is known there as the rough-legged buzzard. Our eagle vs hawk comparison explains where one ends and the other begins.

Falcons, including the American kestrel, merlin and peregrine, are not hawks. They belong to a separate family, and genetic studies show they are more closely related to parrots and songbirds. See falcon vs hawk for the differences. Ospreys and vultures are also outside the hawk group.

Common North American hawks at a glance

Females are larger than males in all of these species, often by a third or more, so sizes overlap between species.

Cooper’s hawk and the American goshawk are now placed by many scientists in the genus Astur, but birders still group them with the sharp-shinned hawk as “accipiters”.

Buteos: the soaring hawks

Buteos have broad wings, short, wide tails and stocky bodies. They often soar in circles on rising warm air or sit for long periods on a perch, watching for rodents.

Red-tailed hawk

The red-tailed hawk (Buteo jamaicensis) is big and bulky, usually brown above and pale below with a band of dark streaks across the belly. Adults have a brick-red tail, easiest to see from above or when the bird banks. From below, look for a dark bar along the leading edge of each wing. Plumage varies a lot, from very pale birds on the Great Plains to dark brown and almost black birds in the West.

Red-tails live in open country with scattered trees, along highways, on farms and in cities. They hunt mainly rodents and rabbits, also taking birds and snakes; see what hawks eat. Their hoarse, descending scream is so dramatic that films often use it as the voice of eagles and other raptors.

Red-shouldered hawk

The red-shouldered hawk (Buteo lineatus) is a slimmer, longer-tailed buteo of wet woodlands, river valleys and swamps. Adults have rusty-orange barred underparts, reddish shoulders, black-and-white checkered wings and a boldly banded black-and-white tail. In flight, pale crescent-shaped “windows” show near the wingtips. Its loud, repeated “kee-ah” is one of the commonest hawk calls in the East, and blue jays often imitate it. Separate populations live in the eastern United States and in California.

Broad-winged hawk

The broad-winged hawk (Buteo platypterus) is a small, compact buteo of eastern deciduous forests, with a broad black-and-white banded tail and white underwings edged in black. It is secretive in summer but spectacular in fall, when huge flocks migrate to Central and South America. Rising together on thermals, they form swirling groups called kettles that can hold thousands of birds.

Swainson’s hawk

Swainson’s hawk (Buteo swainsoni) is a long-winged buteo of western grasslands and farmland. Adults usually have a dark brown bib below a white throat, and from below the pale wing linings contrast with dark flight feathers, the reverse of most hawks. It makes one of the longest migrations of any North American raptor, flying up to about 11,400 km (7,100 mi) to the pampas of Argentina and neighboring countries, where it eats large numbers of grasshoppers.

Rough-legged hawk

The rough-legged hawk (Buteo lagopus) breeds on the Arctic tundra and visits southern Canada and the northern and central United States in winter. It is named for its legs, which are feathered right down to the toes. Look for dark patches at the wrists, a white tail with a dark band at the tip, and a habit of hovering over open fields while hunting voles and lemmings. Both pale and dark birds occur.

Ferruginous hawk

The ferruginous hawk (Buteo regalis) is North America’s largest hawk, weighing about 0.9–2.3 kg (2–5 lb). Pale adults have rusty-red backs and leg feathers that form a dark “V” in flight against white underparts, and a whitish tail. It lives on the prairies and sagebrush plains of the West, hunting ground squirrels, prairie dogs and jackrabbits.

Accipiters: the forest hawks

Accipiters have short, rounded wings and long tails that help them steer through trees. They hunt mostly birds, using surprise and bursts of speed, and often visit backyards with bird feeders. In flight they typically flap several times and then glide.

Sharp-shinned hawk

The sharp-shinned hawk (Accipiter striatus) is the smallest hawk in North America. Adults are blue-gray above with fine orange barring below; young birds are brown and streaked. It breeds mainly in northern and western forests and spreads across most of the United States in winter.

Cooper’s hawk

Cooper’s hawk (Astur cooperii) looks almost identical to the sharp-shinned hawk but is crow-sized rather than jay-sized. Once heavily persecuted and harmed by pesticides, it has adapted to suburbs and cities, where it hunts pigeons, doves and songbirds, and its numbers are increasing.

To separate the two, look at the head and tail. A Cooper’s hawk has a large head that sticks out well ahead of the wings in flight, a dark cap contrasting with a paler nape, and a long, rounded tail with a broad white tip. A sharp-shinned hawk has a small head that barely projects, a hooded look and a shorter, square-tipped tail.

American goshawk

The American goshawk (Astur atricapillus) is the largest and most powerful forest hawk on the continent. It was treated as the same species as the Eurasian goshawk until 2023. Adults are blue-gray with fine gray barring below, a dark crown and a bold white eyebrow, and their eyes are red to orange. Goshawks live in large forests across Canada, Alaska and the western mountains and are rarely seen, though they defend their nests fiercely.

Northern harrier

The northern harrier (Circus hudsonius) is the only harrier in North America. It flies slowly and low over marshes, prairies and fields, wings held in a shallow V, and shows a bright white rump patch in every plumage. Like an owl, it has a disc-shaped face that helps it locate voles by sound. Adult males are pale gray with black wingtips; females and young are brown. It was formerly treated as the same species as the Eurasian hen harrier.

Hawks of the South and Southwest

Several hawks reach the United States only along its southern edge:

• Harris’s hawk: a dark, chestnut-shouldered hawk of the deserts of Arizona, New Mexico and Texas, famous for hunting cooperatively in family groups.
• Short-tailed hawk: a small buteo found in Florida, with separate pale and dark forms.
• Gray hawk, zone-tailed hawk and common black hawk: specialties of riverside woods and canyons in southern Arizona, New Mexico and Texas.
• White-tailed hawk: a bird of the coastal prairies of South Texas.

Hawk migration: where to watch

Each fall, hundreds of thousands of hawks move south along mountain ridges and coastlines, where watchers count them from fixed lookouts. Hawk Mountain Sanctuary in Pennsylvania, founded in 1934 to stop the shooting of migrating hawks, averages about 20,000 raptors each autumn and keeps one of the longest-running records of raptor populations in the world. Other famous sites include Hawk Ridge in Duluth, Minnesota, Cape May in New Jersey and Corpus Christi in Texas, while millions of raptors funnel through Veracruz, Mexico.

The best time for broad-winged hawk kettles is mid-September; sharp-shinned hawks peak in late September and October, and red-tailed hawks in late October and November. Our article do hawks migrate? covers routes and timing in more detail.

Tips for identifying hawks

• Start with shape: broad wings and a short tail suggest a buteo; short wings and a long tail suggest an accipiter; long wings held in a V, low over a field, suggest a harrier.
• Watch the flight: buteos soar and circle, accipiters flap and glide, and harriers tilt and float.
• Check the tail: a red tail, bold black-and-white bands or a white rump can settle an identification quickly.
• Note habitat and season: a rough-legged hawk in July or a Swainson’s hawk in a January snowfield would be very unusual.
• Remember the age: young hawks are usually brown and streaked and lack the adult’s tail color, so many first-year birds look alike.

All native hawks are protected under the Migratory Bird Treaty Act, so enjoy them from a distance and never disturb nests.