40 Fun Facts About Red-Tailed Hawk

Film sound editors often dub the red-tailed hawk's fierce scream over footage of which far more famous bird?

Bald eagle calls are weak, gull-like chirps, so film and television swap in the hawk's louder, more powerful cry.

Americans have long nicknamed the red-tailed hawk after which farmyard bird, though it rarely preys on the adults?

Chicken hawk is a label shared with Cooper's and sharp-shinned hawks, and it once got all three shot as pests. Red-tails mostly hunt mammals.

The red-tailed hawk Pale Male became a celebrity by nesting on an apartment building beside which New York landmark?

Central Park birdwatchers set up telescopes each spring to watch his chicks. He was among the first red-tails known to nest on a building instead of a tree.

Which group of small mammals can make up as much as 85 percent of a red-tailed hawk's diet?

Rodents such as mice, voles, gophers and chipmunks are the hawk's staple, which makes it free pest control for farmers.

Which night hunter, unable to build a nest of its own, often takes over old red-tailed hawk nests?

Great horned owl pairs start nesting as early as December, so they claim a nest before the hawks are ready. The hawks simply build a new one nearby.

In Europe, close relatives of the red-tailed hawk go by which common name instead of hawk?

Buzzards is the Old World name for these broad-winged soaring hawks, while many Americans use the same word for vultures.

Red-tailed hawk pairs sometimes hunt as a team, guarding opposite sides of a tree to trap which animals?

Squirrels flushed by one hawk are almost inevitably driven straight to its partner waiting on the far side of the trunk.

City red-tailed hawks are often sickened or killed after eating prey that has swallowed which household product?

Rat poison causes internal bleeding in the mice that eat the bait, and a hawk that swallows them is dosed in turn.

Which noisy backyard songbird sometimes imitates the red-tailed hawk's call, perhaps to scare rivals away from food?

Blue jay impressions of red-tailed and red-shouldered hawks may also be a way of testing whether a real raptor is lurking nearby.

The red-tailed hawk's scientific name honours which Caribbean island, home of the first specimen described?

Jamaica supplied the bird that naturalist John Latham wrote up in 1781, which is why a hawk found across North America is called Buteo jamaicensis.

Which sitcom star joined street protests after her Manhattan building removed the nest of red-tailed hawk Pale Male?

Mary Tyler Moore lived in the co-op whose board took the nest away in 2004. After an international outcry, the building installed a new cradle for it within weeks.

Which birds drove the young red-tailed hawk Pale Male out of his first tree nest in Manhattan?

Crows drove him from the tree in 1991, when he was a first-year bird. Several crows working together can also push a red-tailed hawk off a carcass.

Which eye colour marks a red-tailed hawk as a youngster, before the irises darken over three or four years?

Yellow irises are how hawk watchers knew a mate of New York's Pale Male was only in her second year. With maturity the eyes slowly turn a deep reddish shade.

During red-tailed hawk courtship flights, the male sometimes briefly locks which body part with his mate in midair?

Talons meet for a moment after the male has repeated a steep dive and climb several times. The whole aerial display can last ten minutes or more.

Red-tailed hawk pairs defend the same territory for years and usually take a new partner only when what happens?

One mate dies, and only then does the survivor look for another. New York's famous Pale Male was seen with eight mates over three decades.

Which century-old US law makes it illegal to pick up and keep a red-tailed hawk feather?

Migratory Bird Treaty Act protection covers dead birds, feathers, eggs and nests as well as living hawks, so even a moulted feather must stay where it fell.

Red-tailed hawks sometimes kill western diamondbacks, heavier than the hawk and part of which venomous snake group?

Rattlesnakes of this size easily surpass the weight of most red-tails, yet the hawks take them anyway, along with full-grown jackrabbits.

Red-tailed hawks have been observed following which stocky digging mammals to capture the prey they flush out?

Badgers send small animals bolting into the open as they dig, and the hawk and the digger are considered potential competitors for the same meal.

The red-tailed hawk's hoarse, rasping cry, lasting two to three seconds, is often likened to which industrial sound?

Steam whistle is the classic comparison for a cry that starts high and slurs downward. The hawk screams loudest when a rival enters its territory.

Which raptor is the only one in North America that uses a wider range of habitats than the red-tailed hawk?

Peregrine falcon alone beats the red-tail, which is at home in deserts, grasslands, mountains, tropical rainforests, farm fields and city centres.

The red-tailed hawk breeds from Alaska and northern Canada as far south as which Central American country?

Panama marks the southern limit, home to a dark resident subspecies with cinnamon flanks that stays put all year.

Unlike broad-winged hawks, how do migrating red-tailed hawks usually pass a hawk watch?

One by one is the rule, and only on days when the winds suit them. Even so, a single spring day at Derby Hill in New York has logged more than 5,000.

Up to 15,000 red-tailed hawks have been counted in a single autumn passing Hawk Ridge in which Minnesota city?

Duluth sits where southbound raptors, unwilling to cross open water, follow the shore and funnel over the ridge. About 20,000 birdwatchers come each year.

A soaring red-tailed hawk often holds its wings in a shallow V, a posture known by which geometry term?

Dihedral soaring lets the hawk stay aloft while flapping as little as possible to save energy. Its active flight is slow, with deep wing beats.

Which group-hunting raptor of the American Southwest is the only bird of prey rated more sociable than the red-tail?

Harris's hawk outranks it for sociability, but trainers still prize red-tails as tameable, long-lived and highly resistant to disease.

The famous New York red-tailed hawk Pale Male was named for the unusually light colouring of which body part?

Head feathers far lighter than usual led birdwatcher and author Marie Winn to coin the name. He was said to be 33 when he died in 2023, a remarkable age for a wild hawk.

Which blackish red-tail, a raptor subspecies breeding in Alaska and the Yukon, is sometimes ranked as a full species?

Harlan's hawk lacks the warm tones of other red-tails, and an experienced watcher can pick it out nearly every time. Its tail is typically not red at all.

What covers newly hatched red-tailed hawk chicks before their flight feathers begin to grow in?

White down keeps the helpless chicks fluffy while a parent broods them. They grow fast, and at around 42 days old they are ready for a first flight.

Red-tailed hawks sometimes harass another hunter until it drops its catch, a tactic known by which name?

Pirating saves the hawk the work of a hunt, but bigger raptors such as ferruginous hawks turn the same trick on red-tails.

As in most birds of prey, which red-tailed hawks are the bigger ones, up to a quarter larger?

Females are up to 25 percent larger than males, weighing as much as 2,000 g against a top weight of about 1,300 g for their mates.

Tree planting and the suppression of which natural force helped red-tailed hawks spread west across the Great Plains?

Wildfire control let trees take hold on open prairie, handing the hawks the perches and nest sites they had lacked there.

Which marsh songbird becomes a conspicuous meal for red-tailed hawks when its males are busy displaying?

Red-winged blackbird males showing off make an easy target, a reminder that the hawk's menu also runs to bats, fish, insects and even earthworms.

On Caribbean islands, red-tailed hawks abandon their usual mainland menu and feed mostly on which animals?

Reptiles such as snakes and lizards dominate island meals because they are the most common native land animals there.

Which nocturnal mammal, a skilled climber, is a leading thief of red-tailed hawk eggs and nestlings?

Raccoon raids, like those of nest-robbing birds, target eggs and chicks because a full-grown red-tail has few natural predators.

Red-tailed hawks line their stick nests with bark, pine needles and sometimes which leftovers from farm fields?

Corn cobs, husks and stalks all turn up in the lining of a nest that can measure about three feet across.

Which abundant city birds are a staple food for red-tailed hawks that live in places like Manhattan?

Pigeons are plentiful enough to support hawks in the heart of a city, where the raptors seem unfazed by crowds of people.

Which IUCN Red List category covers the red-tailed hawk across its North American range?

Least Concern is the lowest-risk category, and the hawk earns it by thriving beside people, from farm country to city centres.

Red-tailed hawks occasionally overpower which well-defended mammals, even though an adult can outweigh the hawk?

Skunks, spray and all, are on the menu, and a striped adult easily surpasses the weight of most red-tails.

The red-tailed hawk Pale Male built his famous nest above a top-floor window on which Manhattan street?

Fifth Avenue's number 927 hosted the nest on ornamental stonework, anchored by spikes that were meant to keep birds off the ledge.

Before a young red-tailed hawk moults into its famous adult tail, its banded tail feathers are mainly which colour?

Brown tail feathers crossed by narrow dark bands mark a juvenile, so a young 'red-tailed' hawk has no red tail at all.