Red-tailed hawk facts for kids

Quick facts for kids Red-tailed hawk
Conservation status
Least Concern (IUCN 3.1)
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Class:	Aves
Order:	Accipitriformes
Family:	Accipitridae
Genus:	Buteo
Binomial name
Buteo jamaicensis

The red-tailed hawk (Buteo jamaicensis) is a common type of hawk. It is a large bird of prey, meaning it hunts and eats other animals. Sometimes people call it a "chickenhawk," but it usually doesn't eat chickens.

These amazing birds live all over North America. You can find them from western Alaska and northern Canada all the way down to Panama and the West Indies. Red-tailed hawks are pretty big! They can weigh from 1.5 lb (1 kg) to 3.5 lb (2 kg). Their wings can spread wide, from 43 in (1,092 mm) to 57 in (1,448 mm).

What Do Red-tailed Hawks Eat?

Red-tailed hawks are carnivores, which means they only eat meat. They mostly hunt small animals like shrews and mice. They have super sharp eyesight, which helps them spot even the tiniest mouse moving in a field.

How Do They Hunt?

These hawks are incredible hunters! They can dive down at speeds of at least 80 miles per hour. When they spot their prey, they swoop down very fast. They grab the animal with their strong feet, called talons, and kill it quickly before eating. They can pick up their prey in less than 5 seconds!

Red-tailed Hawks and Falconry

Because red-tailed hawks are very common and can be trained, they are often used for falconry in the United States. Falconry is an old sport where people train birds of prey to hunt.

People who practice falconry are only allowed to take "passage hawks." These are young hawks that have left their nest and are living on their own, but they are less than a year old. This rule helps make sure that the number of breeding hawks in the wild is not affected. It is against the law to take adult hawks for falconry, especially if they are raising chicks.

Young passage hawks are preferred by falconers because they haven't fully developed their adult behaviors yet. This makes them easier to train.

Images for kids

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  In flight showing the red tail

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  A red-tailed hawk at John Heinz National Wildlife Refuge at Tinicum,

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  A western juvenile in flight

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  Close-up of red-tailed hawk's head

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  Characteristic red tail

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  Immature in California

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  A juvenile red-tailed hawk

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  Red-tailed hawks prefer areas with groves of tall trees from which to hunt and to nest in

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  Red-tailed hawks frequently have to cope with mobbing by crows.

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  Red-tailed hawks engaging in an inflight battle over prey, painted by John James Audubon

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  Juvenile eating an eastern gray squirrel.

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  Formidable feet and talons of a red-tailed hawk.

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  The typical hunting method of red-tailed hawks is to dive down on its prey from a lofty perch.

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  Voles are often caught by red-tails, especially immature hawks such as this may depend almost fully upon them.

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  A red-tailed Hawk eating a Uinta ground squirrel.

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  A juvenile after it ate its mountain cottontail prey.

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  A red-tailed hawk feeding on its prey, a young cat.

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  A hawk eats a rock pigeon, near Toronto harbour

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  A red-tailed hawk with avian prey.

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  A red-tailed hawk feeding off with its kill, a large colubrid snake

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  A red-tailed hawk attempts unsuccessfully to pirate a fish from an osprey.

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  A red-shouldered hawk flies in to harass a red-tailed hawk, which often outcompetes and is occasionally dangerous to smaller raptors.

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  A white-tailed kite mobbing a red-tailed hawk.

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  A red-tailed hawk is mobbed by a northern mockingbird in the urban environment of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

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  Red-tailed Hawk with moon over Estero Bay CA

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  At the end of an aggressive flight

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  The cloaca of a red-tailed hawk, where excretion of biological waste and reproduction takes place

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  Territorial adult chasing away an immature red-tailed hawk

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  Red-tailed hawks build large but untidy looking nests

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  Parent in nest with chicks

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  A red-tailed hawk chick peers out of its cliff nest

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  A recent fledgling on the ground, probably making its early hunting attempts.

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  A hawk at the Canadian Raptor Conservancy in Ontario, Canada

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  A trained red-tailed hawk working with a volunteer from the Ojai Raptor Center

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  A falconer's red-tailed hawk comes in for a landing

See also

In Spanish: Gavilán colirrojo para niños