Red-Tailed Hawk
Red-Tailed Hawk
TheRed-tailed Hawk is the most often-seen large hawk in North Carolina. It perches on telephone poles along highways and soars over open fields in search of food. [This Red-Tailed Hawk chose to perch on our electrical wires outside our back patio. The area outside our patio is a wide open grassy landscape area which seems to attract a wide variety of birds.]
Red-tailed Hawks like a mix of open country and deciduous forests, but they adapt to urban areas ( such as our Gastonia neighbourhood.) Red-tailed Hawks frequently can be seen perching on telephone poles, tall trees or snags along roadsides. They sit high mainly to rest, but constantly keep watch for the slightest movement down below.
Red-tailed Hawks eat mostly mammals, so they’re less likely to visit a popular feeder than a Cooper’s or Sharp-shinned hawk is. It’s very rare for a Red-tailed Hawk to go after dogs or cats.
The Red-tailed Hawk has a thrilling, raspy scream that sounds exactly like a raptor should sound. An interesting fact is that whenever a hawk or eagle appears onscreen, no matter what species, the shrill cry on the soundtrack is almost always a Red-tailed Hawk.
The Eastern subspecies (borealis) tends to have a plain red tail with neat black band near the tip. When the Red-tailed Adult Hawks are hunting, they often hang in the air scanning for prey below. This behavior is known as kiting. They also perch motionless in trees along roadsides or slowly scan for prey from its perch.
Photo Credit:©️2024 Deb L. Waters … All Rights Reserved.
Camera: iPhone 14 Pro Max Telephoto Camera.
Location: Backyard; Gastonia, North Carolina, USA.
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