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 Red-tailed Hawk (Buteo jamaicensis)

Red-tailed Hawk | Buteo jamaicensis photo
Red-Tailed Hawk, Near Christmas Valley, Oregon
Photograph by Alan And Elaine Wilson. Some rights reserved.  (view image details)




Red-tailed Hawk | Buteo jamaicensis photo
Red-Tailed Hawk, Highway 17, Near Tsawwassen, British Columbia
Photograph by Alan And Elaine Wilson. Some rights reserved.  (view image details)

Red-tailed Hawk | Buteo jamaicensis photo
Juvenile Red-tailed Hawk, Visitor's Center, Bosque del Apache National Wildlife Refuge, Near San Antonio, New Mexico
Photograph by Alan And Elaine Wilson. Some rights reserved.  (view image details)





RED-TAILED HAWK FACTS
Description
The Red-tailed Hawk is a large hawk with broad wings and broad red tail with dark band near the tip. There are light and dark color morphs. The light form has dark brown head, white chest with reddish brown streaks, often a dark band on the belly, dark brown back with white mottling, dark patches on leading edge of wing, and dark trailing edge. The dark form is dark brown all over, and may have reddish brown chest. Juveniles are similar to adults, but more streaked, with prominent bars across the tail.

Size
length 45cm - 65cm. Wingspan 114cm - 133cm

Environment
open woodland, farmland, parkland, scrub desert.

Food
Small to medium size mammals, birds, reptiles.

Breeding
Nest is a large bowl made of sticks lined with bark and small twigs. The nest is placed in a tall tree or on a cliff ledge. Lays one to five white eggs with brown blotches.

Range
found from Alaska, and across Canada to Labrador, through the United States to Mexico and Central America.

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


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







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