Buteo jamaicensis
The red-tailed hawk is a raptor that breeds throughout most of North America, from the interior of Alaska and northern Canada to as far south as Panama and the West Indies. It is one of the most common members within the genus of Buteo in North America or worldwide. The red-tailed hawk is one of three species colloquially known in the United States as the chickenhawk. Red-tailed hawk plumage can be variable, depending on the subspecies and the region. These color variations are morphs, and are not related to molting. The western North American population (Bj caluru) is the most variable subspecies and has three main color morphs: light, dark, and intermediate or rufous. The dark and intermediate morphs constitute 10–20% of the population in the Western United States, but seem to constitute only 1–2% in western Canada.
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Red-tailed hawks can acclimate to all the biomes within their range, occurring on the edges of non-ideal habitats such as dense forests and sandy deserts. Generally it favors varied habitats with open woodland, woodland edge and open terrain. It is legally protected in Canada, Mexico, and the United States by the Migratory Bird Treaty Act.
The diet of red-tailed hawks is highly variable and reflects their status as opportunistic generalists, but in North America, they are most often predators of small mammals such as rodents of an immense diversity of families and species. Over much of the range, smallish rodents such as voles alternated with larger rabbits and hares often collectively form the bulk of the diet. Large numbers of birds and reptiles can occur in the diet in several areas, and can even be the primary foods.
In most of the interior contiguous United States the first egg is laid between mid-March and early April, ranging from 3–5 weeks after the nest is constructed, with the clutch completed 2–5 days after the initial egg is laid. After 28–35 days of incubation (averaging about 3 days longer in the Caribbean as does fledgling as compared to North American red-tails), the eggs hatch over 2–4 days. Young typically leave the nest for the first time and attempt their first flights at about 42–46 days after hatching but usually they stay very near the nest for the first few days. During this period, the fledglings remain fairly sedentary, though they may chase parents and beg for food. Parents deliver food directly or, more commonly, drop it near the young.
Red-tailed hawks are considered partial migrants, as in about the northern third of their distribution, which is most of their range in Canada and Alaska, they almost entirely vacate their breeding grounds. In coastal areas of the north, however, such as in the Pacific Northwest to southern Alaska and in Nova Scotia on the Atlantic, red-tailed hawks do not usually migrate.[6] More or less, any area where snow cover is nearly continuous during the winter shows an extended absence of most red-tailed hawks, so some areas as far south as Montana may show strong seasonal vacancies of red-tails.
The adult Western Red-tailed hawk dark morphs are typically all chocolate brown above and below although sometimes variously even jet black or with a bit of tawny feather edging below) with a rufous tail, which sometimes has heavy blackish crossbars but is usually similar to other red tails. Intermediate or rufous morphs are rich rufous on the breast, with a broad, solid chocolate-brown belly band and heavily barred thighs and crissum. Like dark morphs, rufous morph adults usually lack the incomplete V on the back, but sometimes rufous feathers can manifest on one. Adults may show nearly endless variation in coloring and many may combine several characteristics of the three main morphs.
This hawk was seen in Ventura, California. The signature feature of an adult red-tailed hawk is the red tail. Adults feature red feathers on their tails, while juveniles’ tails are a darker brown. Younger birds don’t show the reddish tail feathers until they are at least a year old. Until then, their tail feathers are brown with narrow, darker bars.
Dark morph juveniles are usually mostly dark brown but with extensive pale mottling on the back and occasional tawny-edge feathers on the underside and slightly broader bars on the tail than pale morph B. j. calurus. Rufous morph immatures are more similar to pale morph ones but are considerably more heavily streaked almost everywhere below from the thighs to the upper chest. Note the yellow eye of a juvenile and the brown tail with narrow bars.
A juvenile seen een from the front, with heavy streaking.
This juvenile Red-tailed Hawk is from Alaska. Immatures of this race are usually blackish brown overall with a white throat and wide tail bands. While the alaska and western red-tail hawk are not easy to tell apart, the main identifier is that the alaska subspecies is a smaller bird.
This is the front view of the Ventura, California Adult Intermediate Morph.
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