Another of the birds that frequent the Legacy Nature Preserve.
The red-tailed hawk is one of the most common large, broad-winged hawks in North America. Its range is from Alaska and northern Canada south to Central America. Red-tailed hawks live in a variety of habitats: open country, scrub, woodlands, rocky canyons, coastlines, prairies and deserts. Like all raptors, they are carnivores.
- Red-tailed hawks are opportunistic, preying on a broad variety of animals: insects, rats, mice, squirrels, reptiles and other birds. About 75 percent of their diet consists of rodents and other small mammals. This flexibility in diet contributes to their successful adaptation to many types of ecosystems.
- Like other buteos, the red-tailed hawks hunting style allows them to expend less energy when hunting. They scan for prey from either a soaring or perched position, and then move in for the kill. For unwary prey like mice, red-tailed hawks may fly openly from perch to perch. For more alert prey, a red-tailed hawk approaches indirectly from behind the cover of trees and bushes. Then the hawk attacks quickly, and may even pursue prey over short distances.
CONGRATULAIONS to peakbagginggeo for FTF.