Red-shouldered Hawk (Buteo lineatus)
Photo credit: © Peter Wallack
Length: 16-24 in.
Habitat: Deciduous woodlands, especially where there is standing water.
Range: Minnesota and New Brunswick south to the Gulf Coast, and on the Pacific Coast from N. California to Baja California. Winters north to southern New England and the Ohio Valley.
Its voice is shrill scream kee-yeeer, with a downward inflection.
This is a large, long-winged hawk with rust-barred underparts, reddish shoulders, a narrowly banded tail, and a translucent area near the tip of the wing, visible from below. Young birds are streaked below and are best distinguished from young red-tailed Hawks by their somewhat smaller size; narrower tail; and longer, narrower wings.
The Red-shouldered Hawk generally avoids the upland forests inhabited by the Red-tailed Hawk, and is more often found in lowlands, especially swampy woods and bogs. There it hunts by sitting quietly on a low perch, dropping down to capture snakes and frogs. It also eats insects and small mammals.
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