Compare that to things like Sharp-shinned and Cooper’s Hawks which eat mostly birds and are capable of incredible aerial maneuvers to catch them. They might start from a perch or they might start from the air, but basically they swoop down on something to catch it. Hawks like this, Red-tailed, and Swainson’s are all about ambush hunting. Those smaller birds are almost always more maneuverable. It’s a privilege that we get to enjoy them.įor the same reason that a bomber won’t fare well against a fighter jet.
This is a beautiful hawk and one that barely makes it this far west. Here they can often be found sitting on branches at low to mid-heights above creeks. One of the best places to look for this species is the tall woods at the Abilene State Park and around the dam of Lake Abilene. In Taylor County, Red-shouldered Hawks are mostly limited to areas along creeks and lakes and are best detected by their squealing cries, but beware of Blue Jays which often give perfect imitations of this hawk. Photo A & R Photography, used with permission. Populations in Florida are the palest of all. Florida birds (see photo below) are the palest of all, with pale orange breasts and pale heads. West Coast birds are exceptionally orange with pale gray heads, like the photo above.
There is also a populations along the West Coast, mostly limited to California and barely crossing into southern Oregon, and another distinct population found in Florida. I’ve described birds from the eastern population. I mentioned the species looks slightly different depending on where they live. Geographic Variation West coast birds are extremely orange on the chest. Red-shouldered Hawks often like to hunt around water. Here they prey on a wide variety of vertebrates (animals with a backbone) including small mammals like squirrels, lizards, snakes, frogs, and sometimes even birds. They like big forests with tall trees that have relatively open spaces below the canopy, making it easier to fly through when hunting. Red-shouldered Hawks are mostly found in the eastern continental U.S. Otherwise they’re streaked in brown and can be confusing. They’re heavily streaked with thin bands on the tail but still show the translucent window through the wings like adults. Immature birds are a little trickier to identify in flight. Those two features are enough to identify the bird, but if seen well, the body is orange as are the feathers on the underside of the wing, feathers known as the underwing coverts. The tail is also strongly barred with black and white lines. This paler region is caused by the white on the top of the wings which lets more light pass through. The most important is the semi-translucent crescents towards the tips of the wings in the main flight feathers (known as the primary feathers or simply the primaries). Photo Ryan Sanderson, used with permission.Īdults in flight are identified by the combination of several marks. Seen from underneath, the pale crescents at the ends of the wings are diagnostic. The red shoulders are prominent and the strong checkered pattern of black and white on the wings and tail is unlike any other hawk in our area. In flight, Red-shouldered Hawks are gorgeous. Identification In Flight The wing and tail pattern are distinct in flight. Young Red-taileds typically have a strong band of streaking across the belly. At all ages, Red-shouldereds are smaller than our most common raptor, the Red-tailed Hawk. Young Red-shouldered Hawks are streaked on the breast and unlike Broad-winged Hawk, the streaking is rather even. Photo Jesse Gordon, used with permission. Young birds are more confusing, especially when perched. The wings and tail are black with strong white bars. The upper breast is orange with darker orange barring. Adults have rusty red shoulders, (which unusually, are not visible in the photo above because the bird is puffed up). In Taylor County, we see birds that look like the eastern population. Red-shouldered Hawks look slightly different depending on where they live. They’re just not visible in this individual because he puffed up on a cold day. Identification Red-shouldered Hawk does have red shoulders. You just have to accept that you’ll run into a few of them each month if you visit the right places. Once you do, they’re not too hard, but they’re the kind of bird that you can’t count on finding on any single day.
Scarce in Taylor County, you have to know just where to look to find this species. It kept my streak of finding new birds going for one more day before it finally died on January 15th. I saw my first one way back on January 14th. Red-shouldered Hawk is a interesting bird in Taylor County.
0 kommentar(er)
