Birds
Red-tailed Hawk
Buteo jamaicensis · also called redtail, chickenhawk
The red-tailed hawk is the bird of prey most North Americans see every day without quite noticing: the heavy brown shape on a roadside pole, the slow circle over a field, the shape that makes pigeons scatter. It is the continent’s default hawk, and its voice is one of the most heard sounds in cinema.
Overview
Buteo jamaicensis lives across North and Central America, in deserts, prairies, farmland, woodland edges, and cities. It has broad rounded wings, a short fanned tail that is brick-red on most adults, and hunts mainly rodents and rabbits from a perch or a soar. Plumage varies hugely across its range.
The scream
Its harsh, rasping “kee-eeeee-arr” is the standard Hollywood sound for eagles and hawks of every kind. The bald eagle’s actual call is a weak chirp, so editors dub the red-tail’s scream over it — and over ospreys, golden eagles, and generic raptors everywhere.
A bird that adapted to us
Road building gave it hunting perches and verge rodents, and forest clearing opened new country. It has moved into cities, most famously as “Pale Male,” nesting on a Fifth Avenue building in New York since the 1990s.
Status
Least Concern and increasing. The old persecution as a “chickenhawk” — despite poultry being a trivial part of its diet — has largely ended, and it is now fully protected.
Red-tailed Hawk: common questions
Is the red-tailed hawk the bird making that eagle scream in movies?
Almost certainly, if the "eagle" on screen sounds fierce. The bald eagle, despite its majestic look, has a thin, chirpy, almost comical call, so sound editors have for decades replaced it with the red-tailed hawk's raspy, descending scream, which matches what audiences expect a bird of prey to sound like. The same red-tail scream is used for golden eagles, ospreys, and generic "hawks" in countless films, cartoons, and commercials. Once you know the sound, you hear it everywhere, usually coming out of the wrong bird.
How do I identify a red-tailed hawk?
Look for a large, chunky hawk with broad, rounded wings and a short, wide, fan-shaped tail, either perched upright on a pole, fence post, or bare branch overlooking open ground, or soaring in slow circles with the wings held in a slight V. On a perched or overhead adult, the reddish upper tail is the clincher, though it can be hard to see from below. Most red-tails also show a pale chest with a band of darker streaking across the belly and a dark leading edge to the underwing. Plumage varies enormously by region and individual, so shape, size, and behaviour are more reliable than colour.
Do red-tailed hawks really take chickens?
Rarely. The old name "chickenhawk" was applied loosely to several hawk species and led to widespread shooting of red-tails, but studies of what they actually eat find that poultry makes up a tiny fraction of the diet, which is dominated by rodents and rabbits. A red-tail will occasionally take a free-ranging chicken, a pigeon, or a small pet, but as a rodent specialist it does far more good than harm around a farm, and it is now illegal to kill one in the United States and Canada.
Why do crows and small birds attack red-tailed hawks?
This is mobbing, a defensive behaviour aimed at driving a predator out of the area and teaching younger birds what to fear. Crows, jays, blackbirds, and even hummingbirds will dive at, chase, and harass a perched or flying red-tail, calling loudly, because the hawk is a threat to their eggs, young, and themselves. The hawk usually just flies off to a quieter spot rather than fighting back, since catching a fast, alert, aggressive mob bird is not worth the effort. Mobbing is one of the easiest ways to locate a hidden hawk or owl, since the small birds find it first.