Hello ScienceWorks friends!

For July I am pleased to present one of the most beautiful and iconic birds of North America: the Red-tailed Hawk. 

Red-tailed Hawks are awesome animals and fearsome predators. These magnificent birds look imposing with their sharp bills and talons, enormous soaring wings, and fierce expressions. While large for birds, they average less than 2.5 pounds, highlighting just how efficiently birds use their mass. It’s hard to imagine a more formidable 2.5 lb creature.

A Red-tailed Hawk is one kilogram of soaring death.

I found what I believe is a breeding pair circling near ScienceWorks this month. These hawks perform spectacular courtship displays with dramatic swoops and chases, often dangling their legs as they soar. They sometimes evenlock talons and go into a wild spiral toward the ground (look up videos!), releasing each other just in time to avoid crashing. They typically mate for life and apparently take this union very seriously.

Birds usually keep their legs tucked up in flight. Hawks actually have very long, powerful legs, and look pretty silly when they let them dangle. 

Red-tailed Hawks are by far the most commonly seen hawk across most of North America, including Southern Oregon. They soar on broad wings over fields and open woodlands, and are frequently spotted along roadsides or perching on telephone poles.

They come in many different shades and color patterns, but most adults can be identified by a band of vertical marks across the belly, dark heads, dark marks along the leading edges of their wings, and their namesake red tails. Juveniles lack the red tail and are more difficult to distinguish from other raptors.

I found this gorgeous specimen perched in a big cottonwood at ScienceWorks earlier this spring. The exact colors and patterns of their plumage vary widely between individuals.

They are very common along I-5, with several nests along Bear Creek, some of which can be seen from the freeway.

If you’ve seen a big hawk soaring around the Rogue Valley, it’s very likely you’ve seen a Red-tailed Hawk. You’ve probably also heard its epic screeching call, as it is one of the 

most iconic animal sounds in nature and gets played over nearly every big soaring bird on TV. Bald Eagles, Peregrine Falcons, vultures, and many others all get Red-tailed Hawk screeches added to their footage. If you want to become skilled at raptor ID, the first step is to learn the Red-tailed Hawk well, as it is the hawk all others are compared to.

Happy Birding!

And don't forget to add your own bird sightings to the ScienceWorks eBird Hotspot!

Sources:

Sibley, David Allen. The Sibley Guide to Birds. 2nd ed., Alfred A. Knopf, 2014. 

Cornell Lab of Ornithology. (n.d.). Red-tailed Hawk. All About Birds. Retrieved July 15, 2026, from https://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Red-tailed_Hawk/lifehistory