Red-tailed Hawk

About the Red-tailed Hawk

The Red-tailed Hawk is the quintessential hawk of the American landscape - a big, broad-winged buteo you have almost certainly seen perched on a roadside pole or wheeling in slow circles overhead. Adults are variable but usually show a rich brown back, a pale streaked belly with a darker band across the middle, and, in good light, that trademark brick-red tail. Young birds have a brown, banded tail and take a couple of years to earn the red.

They hunt by watching from a high perch or soaring on rising thermals, then dropping onto rabbits, ground squirrels, snakes, and other small prey. The piercing, raspy scream of a Red-tail is so iconic that films dub it over nearly every bird of prey on screen, eagles included.

In Texas, Red-tailed Hawks are common and widespread year-round, their numbers swelling in winter as northern birds move south. Scan fence posts, power poles, and lone trees along any country road and you will eventually find one surveying its territory.

A note from behind the lens: their habit of perching in the open makes them one of the most approachable raptors to photograph. Work from the car as a blind, keep low and slow, and watch for the moment they lean forward and lift off.