Hear a story about a red-tailed hawk.
Hear a red-tailed hawk.

from The Birds of Texas
by John L. Tveten

© TPWD, Photo by Bill Reaves
Birds of prey rank among the most magnificent of all the world's creatures. Few seem more perfectly suited to the ecological niche they fill than these featured hunters of the skies. Long celebrated in song and story, they have come to symbolize strength, wisdom and freedom of spirit. People of many cultures around the world have considered them sacred and worshipped them as deities through the centuries. Yet in spite of all their magnificence and the useful roles they play in our environment, hawks and owls face continued persecution and remain in need of stepped-up conservation efforts and widespread understanding.

The red-tailed hawk is bird of prey and is the most widespread and abundant of all our large buteo hawks. (Buteo is a genus of hawks that include large broad-winged and broad-tailed hawks.) It ranges across the continent, from Alaska and Canada southward to Panama, and withdraws only from the northernmost portions of that range in winter.

Texas birders often say that any large hawk should be considered a red-tail until proven otherwise, especially in the open country that it prefers. Plumages range from extremely pale to almost black. A number of named races occur across the country, and may also vary within a given range. (This makes red-tails very difficult to identify.)

The typical adult red-tailed hawk appears white underneath, with a series of short brown streaks forming a "belly-band" that shows up easily against the pale plumage. The upper parts are brown, often with pale mottling on the scapulars that forms a light V across the back of the perching bird. The rusty red top of the tail flashes in the sunlight as a soaring bird banks and rolls; however, the underside is paler, with only hints of red showing through. In flight overhead, a dark bar on the leading edge of the wing is also visible, contrasting with the pale wing linings. Immature red-tails display heavier brown streaking on the underparts and have gray-brown tails with several blackish bands.

Red-tailed hawks feed primarily on rodents. They build large stick nests in tall trees on the edge of open woodlands, in isolated trees on the plains, or on rocky cliff faces, wherever they have a commanding view of their domains. Females lay 2 or 3 whitish eggs, often spotted with brown. The chicks hatch in about 30 days and fledge 45 days later.

The red-tailed hawk nests widely across Texas, but it is rare or absent in the lower Rio Grande delta and on portions of the coast during the summer. It perches on telephone poles and fence posts along every roadway and hunts over open woodlands, cultivated fields, pastures and desert scrub. The red-tail's call is a harsh keee-yrr, keee-yrr, keee-yrr.

© TPW, Photo by Bill Reaves.

Eyes like a Hawk . . .

Raptors' eyes are immense for the size of their heads. Mounted well forward on the face, they give hawks the binocular vision and depth perception necessary to swoop to a point in space. The eyes are also packed with a higher density of receptors than those of other animals, resulting in the keen vision responsible for such stock terms as "eagle eye" and "eyes like a hawk." Bony ridges above the eyes give them a hooded appearance and make the raptor's piercing gaze seem even more steely and fierce.

Excerpts from The Birds of Texas by John L. Tveten with permission from Shearer Publishing, Inc.

More Bird Facts More Bird Facts There are more than 200 species of raptors in the Accipitridae family. Osprey, eagles, kites, harriers, accipiters and buteos are in this family. They range in size from huge eagles to tiny accipiters and kites. In Europe, buteo hawks are called "buzzards," a term Texans use for vultures. Hawks feed on rodents and have strong, sharp talons to grasp their prey. Their beaks are hooked to help them tear away bits of flesh.

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