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North American Animals - mamals, birds, reptiles, insects

 Red-shouldered Hawk (Buteo lineatus)

Red-shouldered Hawk | Buteo lineatus photo
Red-shouldered Hawk in the Cloisters City Park in Morro Bay, CA
Photograph by Mike Baird. Some rights reserved.  (view image details)








RED-SHOULDERED HAWK FACTS
Description
The Red-shouldered Hawk has reddish shoulders and chest and reddish belly with white bars. The wings are dark gray to black. The tail has broad black bands separated by thinner white bands. It has a pale crescent shape near the wing tips that is visible in flight. The tail has several wide dark bands separated by thin white ones. The legs and cere are yellow. The eyes are black. Females are similar to males. Juvenile birds have more barring or streaking on the underside.

Size
length 43cm - 61cm. Wingspan: 94cm - 111cm

Environment
open forests, wooded river banks, flooded swamps.

Food
Small mammals, birds, reptiles, amphibians, crayfish.

Breeding
Nest is a large bowl made of sticks, dried leaves, bark and lined with fine bark, moss, lichen. The nest is built in the fork of a tree. Lays two to five dull white eggs with brown blotches

Range
Breeds in the east from Minnesota to New Brunswick, down eastewrn half of United States to eastern Texas and Florida. Also breeds on the Pacific Coast from south west Oregon to Baja California in Mexico. Winters throughout eastern United States and central Mexico.

Classification
Class:Aves
Order:Falconiformes
Family:Accipitridae
Genus:Buteo
Species:lineatus
Common Name:Red-shouldered Hawk


Relatives in same Genus
  White-tailed Hawk (B. albicaudatus)
  Short-tailed Hawk (B. brachyurus)
  Red-tailed Hawk (B. jamaicensis)
  Rough-legged Hawk (B. lagopus)
  Gray Hawk (B. nitidus)
  Ferruginous Hawk (B. regalis)
  Swainson's Hawk (B. swainsoni)







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