Red-shouldered Hawk, Buteo lineatus


Red-shouldered Hawk
The beautiful adult Red-shouldered Hawk has red underparts, usually finely barred, and a black-and-white checkerboard pattern on the wings, with red background replacing the white on the lesser wing-coverts or "shoulders." This is one of the smallest of the buteo hawks, with a relatively slender build, longer tail, and more rounded wing tips that give it an appearance somewhere between a typical buteo, like the Red-tailed Hawk, and an accipiter, like the Cooper's Hawk. Red-shouldered Hawks mostly feed on small mammals, like other buteos, but also hunt birds, the primary prey of the accipiters; this accounts for their relatively slender build and rounded wingtips, adapted to rapid pursuit flight in wooded areas. The Red-shouldereds in the image above and the two directly below are feeding on birds.


Red-shouldered Hawk


Red-shouldered Hawk


Red-shouldered Hawk
The "red shoulder" is visible on the bird above, distinctly set off from the otherwise dark-and-white pattern of the wings, and also seen on several other birds pictured on this page.


Red-shouldered Hawk


Red-shouldered Hawk


Red-shouldered Hawks
Above, a pair that I had just seen mating, resting comfortably together in the afterglow (wrote he, anthropomorphically.) Below,
another pair that I had not seen mating but, given their close proximity, probably had been or were to about to. Coincidentally,
both pictures were taken on the same date eleven years apart, February 25th, when the early California spring begins to
stimulate courtship and mating.

Red-shouldered Hawks
Red-shouldered Hawks have two entirely separate populations in North America, a western (mostly California) subspecies, and three eastern subspecies extending from the northeast to south Florida. The eastern birds are somewhat larger and generally more pale than the Californians, with the south Florida subspecies the palest, a contrast illustrated by the California pair above and the Florida adult below.


Red-shouldered Hawk
Red-tailed Hawks taking off, above a Florida bird, below a California.


Red-shouldered Hawk

Red-shouldered Hawk
A Red-shouldered Hawk overhead can be identified even at a great distance by the white windows in the wings, as sunlight pours through the translucent white flight feathers.

Red-shouldered Hawk
Juvenile Red-shouldered Hawks from California, above and below. Like other raptors,
Red-shouldereds retain their juvenal plumage for their entire first year of life.
The western juvenile has bib of thick vertical stripes on the breast, with thick barring below. 


Red-shouldered Hawk

Red-shouldered Hawk
A Florida adult above, with thinner stripes on the bib and the bars further down on the
underparts less well defined compared to California birds. The color is rufous-brown
here; note the absence of any rufous on the underparts of the Florida juvenile in flight
further down, and compare the California birds above.



Red-shouldered Hawk
California and Florida juveniles in flight, above and below respectively. Where the California
bird shows heavy striping on the bib, and heavy barring on the breast and belly, with the
forward part of the wing strongly marked with reddish brown, the Florida juvenile is nearly white
on the forward part of the wing, with an almost entirely white breast, only thin dark stripes
making up the bib, and no barring but only a few dark spots below it. As noted above on the
page, the coloring of the dark parts of the undersurface varies among individuals of both types
from rufous to gray-brown.


Red-shouldered Hawk


Red-shouldered Hawks
Red-shouldered Hawk nest shown, with one of three nestlings on the left and an adult on the right. The adult parent probably brought food to the nest; the back and downy head of a second nestling can be seen just left of the adult, with the bird facing away into the nest, possibly eating. A few feathers of the third nestling can be seen just left of the main nestling. The nestlings still retained some baby down, especially on the head, but had most of their juvenal plumage grown in. 

Red-shouldered Hawk
Above, a nestling beating its wings while perching on the rim of the nest; young birds exercise their wings in this way preparatory to fledging. Below, two nestlings nearly ready to fledge, showing less down than the birds in the two photos above.

Red-shouldered Hawks