Red Tailed

Red Tailed Hawk

(Buteojamaicensis)

Photographed in the wild, Phoenix, AZ  Mar 2009

Photographed in Holguin, Cuba  May 2018

The Red-Tailed Hawk is about 19-23 inches long. It weighs about 2.5 pounds with wingspan to 4.5 feet. The plumage (feathers) varies a bit, but is generally brown to grey brown with paler markings, and with a white chest. The tail feathers are red-brown with a square-cut.

The Red-Tailed Hawk is a carnivore (a meat-eater) who often catches its prey while flying, killing it with sharp talons as you can see above. The Red-Tailed Hawk's large nest is built out of sticks, bark and leaves, and is located high in a tree. 

The female lays 1-5 white eggs laid at one time speckled with brown in each clutch. Both parents incubate the eggs.

These hawks are found along edges of open forest, a common sight over open fields, often, seen perched in the lower section of a tree, watching for any movements below. Seen from Newfoundland/Labrador to Alaska, down into southern California, to the tip of Florida, into southern Central America and on to the Caribbean Islands like Cuba.

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