Tube feeding a Red-shoulder Hawk

This medium-sized bird of prey is very common on the West Coast of the U.S., from Oregon to Mexico. While conspicuously absent from the middle U.S., he is quite possibly the most common hawk found in many parts of the northeastern U.S. On the East Coast, the range is south of the Great Lakes and east of central Minnesota, and as far south as Florida and northeastern Mexico. The red-shouldered hawk in the West is larger and darker than the Florida form.

Red-shouldered hawks are characterized by reddish patches on their wrists and upper backs, giving the appearance of "red shoulders", hence their name. Their underside is light with rufous barring on breast and belly. The tail is dark brown with 4 or 5 white bands and a white tip. The juvenile has less shoulder coloration and an indistinctly barred tail.

Their habitat is moist, mixed woodlands, wet meadows and bogs. When in territorial competition with the larger red-tailed hawk, the red-shoulder will often move into closed canopy woods- habitats unused by red-tails.

Two to four eggs are laid in the spring, generally in a nest thirty to sixty feet high. The stick nest is usually placed in the crotch of a tall deciduous tree and is often used year after year. The incubation period is about 28 days, with the fledging period (for the surviving young) about the same.

As with red-tails, the red-shouldered hawk spends many hours perched on telephone poles, wires, or dead trees looking for suitable prey. Their diet includes rodents, snakes, frogs, insects, small birds and crayfish.

By hearing their vocalization, a peeer-peeeer-peer-peer, one can be assured that a natural form of population control is underway.

As with all birds of prey, red-shouldered hawks are federally protected. It is a violation of the law to harm a bird of prey, disturb their eggs or nests, or to possess even a single feather from a bird of prey. Indiscriminate shooting and poisoning of birds of prey caused some species to nearly become extinct. Protected status for these birds insures that we humans won't repeat our mistakes and that future generations will enjoy these animals as we do today.

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