The parent birds are formidable warriors when their nest is disturbed. While I was making notes at a nest in Potter County, the heavy female bird struck me on the head, shoulders, and back a dozen times with her large feet. The male was wary, though he joined in the battle occasionally.
Rarely does the Goshawk capture mice or other destructive small mammals, eating virtually nothing but Grouse so long as these birds can be found. It is not protected in Pennsylvania.
RED-TAILED HAWK
Buteo borealis borealis (Gmelin)
Other Names.—Chicken Hawk; Hen Hawk.
Description.—Large, with broad wings and comparatively short tail; often seen circling in the sky or perched on a prominent dead stub; female larger than male. Adults: Upperparts dark brown, glossed with violet on back; scapulars and wing-coverts somewhat barred with buffy brown; throat white; breast usually crossed by a brownish band or by a row of streaks; rest of underparts whitish, barred and streaked with blackish, particularly on flanks and sides; tibial feathers buffy; tail bright red-brown with white tip and subterminal band of black; eyes dark brown; feet and cere greenish yellow. Immature birds are similar but the plumage of their upperparts is considerably mottled and edged with buffy, and the tail is gray, crossed with many narrow black bands. The underparts are often more heavily marked than in the adults, and the eyes are grayish yellow, not dark brown. Length: Male, 20 inches; female, 23 inches.
Range in Pennsylvania.—Fairly common permanent resident, save at high altitudes, where it is to be found only irregularly during winter. Some Red-tails migrate into or through Pennsylvania during fall and early winter, but it is now believed that most nesting birds actually remain in one region during the entire year. In many sections of the State it is becoming rarer each year.
Nest.—A bulky affair of twigs and branches, lined with leaves and finer materials, placed usually in a large, high, deciduous tree, at from 50 to 80 feet from the ground. Eggs: 2 or 3, whitish, irregularly blotched and spotted with reddish brown.
Red-shouldered Hawk
Red-tailed Hawk
The Red-tail may easily be confused with the Red-shoulder, which, while smaller, has the same proportions. The Red-shoulder is more often found in swampy country or in the lowlands; the Red-tail is a bird of the fields and open wood-lots. The Red-shoulder’s scream is clear and loud; that of the Red-tail is wheezy and often whistle-like in quality. The Red-shoulder’s flight is more rapid, at times more owl-like than that of the Red-tail, and, of course, the Red-shoulder’s tail is never red-brown, but is black, crossed with narrow white bands. Immature Red-shoulders are to be distinguished from immature Red-tails with difficulty, partly because the birds do not call much and partly because there is variation in the size of the sexes—a small male Red-tail being not much larger than a female Red-shoulder; in the hand, however, the young Red-shoulder is more conspicuously streaked below than is the young Red-tail, and the feet are always slenderer and more delicate than in the larger species.
The Red-tail’s food habits are, for the most part, innocent; nevertheless, it is not protected in Pennsylvania at the present time.
RED-SHOULDERED HAWK
Buteo lineatus lineatus (Gmelin)
Other Name.—Chicken Hawk.
Description.—Smaller than the Red-tail, with broad wings and comparatively short tail. Adults: Head and neck dark brown, streaked with reddish brown; back dark brown, with irregular barring and edging of gray and whitish; wings black, barred and spotted with white, lesser coverts rich reddish brown; tail black, crossed with three distinct but narrow white bands; underparts reddish brown, barred on belly, sides, and flanks with white; throat whitish, streaked, not barred, with dusky; a black spot on malar region; under tail-coverts white; feet and cere greenish yellow; eyes dark brown. Immature birds: Dark brown above, neck and back streaked and spotted with whitish and buffy; lesser wing-coverts reddish brown; primaries edged with buffy brown; tail gray-brown crossed with several light bars; underparts buffy white, streaked with black, principally on breast, sides, and belly; eyes pale grayish, with a yellow cast. Length: Male, 18½ inches; female, 21 inches.
Range in Pennsylvania.—A somewhat local summer resident from March 1 to December 1, often found along river valleys or in swampy country; winters occasionally, chiefly in the southern half of the Commonwealth. Usually not so common as the Red-tail.
Nest.—Of twigs, lined with leaves and other fine materials, and usually with a sprig or two of fresh hemlock, built in a hemlock, beech, or other forest tree, usually from 30 to 60 feet from the ground. Sometimes the Red-shoulder adds materials to the last year’s nest of a Crow and uses this structure as a nest. Eggs: 3 to 6, pale greenish white, irregularly blotched with dark reddish brown.