Red-tailed hawks
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Marie Narlock
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I have a friend who measures outings in red-tailed hawks. “It was a five-hawk drive!” she’ll exclaim after visiting a bucolic setting.
Rusty-red tail feathers are the namesake trait of red-tailed hawks. Photo: Betsy Matsubara, El Sobrante
That’s an easy image to conjure: fierce hawks perched high on telephone and fence poles, eyes laser-locked on anything that moves, soaring and swooping to onlookers’ delight.To you and me, these majestic birds are simply landscape fixtures, but others may look at hawks differently.
To ornithologists, all hawks are raptors: carnivorous birds with razor-sharp talons, powerful feet, curved beaks, and keen eyesight.
A hawk can’t move its eyes like we can but can see its prey a hundred feet away. An extra eyelid provides protection, and an extra neck bone allows its head to turn 180+ degrees. Its beak has sharp edges to slash and rip apart prey on the ground or in flight. These lethal traits make hawks formidable hunters.
This is why, to a snake or squirrel or host of other animals, hawks are serial killers. Hawks enjoy a meaty diet. Mammals large as rabbits and small as voles are on the menu, as are birds large as pheasants. (Yes, hawks eat other birds. I wish it weren’t true, but there it is.) Dessert may include bats, frogs, insects, and even carrion for a quick and easy meal.
A red-tail hawk snatches a small rabbit in its sharp, powerful talons. Photo: Shanthanu BhardwajRed-tailed hawks stealthily glide along at 20 to 40 miles per hour, and then – BAM! -- zoom downward in a 120-mph dive. In pursuit, they careen in wide, silent circles before snatching a snack with uncompromising talons.
A rat or rabbit doesn’t stand a chance.
That’s why, to gardeners, hawks are excellent natural enemies. That’s science-speak for a pest management strategy called biological control. In essence, hawks keep rodent populations down so gardeners can avoid using baits or other undesirable methods.
This is a bonus for those wanting to cultivate sustainable, Earth-friendly landscapes. And it’s especially beneficial to the hawks themselves because they are at the top of the food chain.
Red-tailed hawks glide silently in wide circles as they search for prey, their wings held wide. Photo: Alan Vernon, FlickrThat sounds like a good place to be, and it does have its benefits. (Just ask a mouse.) But remember back in Biology 101 when you learned about biomagnification?
Let’s say your neighbor sprinkles poison outdoors to kill rodents. A rat eats the bait and dies a slow death, allowing a sharp-eyed hawk to dive in for an easy kill. Unfortunately, the concentration of the toxin becomes successively higher as you move up the food chain. In other words, the hawk gets a wallop of poison. Perched at the top of the food web, it’s vulnerable to this and other environmental hazards.
In fact, to environmentalists, hawks are “bioindicators” of the environment. In other words, they provide clues about the health or decline of an area.
Hawks live in woodlands, mountains, roadsides, and beyond. To attract hawks to your garden, try emulating their natural environment. A tall tree and source of water helps. Some people hang bird feeders to attract small birds for hawks to feed on. (I’ll try not to judge you if you do this.)
To birders, red-tailed hawks are familiar, the most common hawk in the US. Binoculars up, they marvel at the four-and-a-half foot wingspan and iconic red tail feathers. They might even get a glimpse of a nest.
Red-tailed hawks mate for life. To woo a spouse, a male may perform repeated dives or, in a twist on an engagement ring, may catch and toss prey to a female midair. Such a showoff! Not to be outdone, a female may fly in circles alongside her suitor or lock talons and take dramatic spiraling dives.
The feathery lovebirds are co-parents, building their nest together in trees or on cliffs and sharing responsibilities for incubating their eggs.
Whether protecting their nests or simply when zooming through the sky fast as a car, hawks often screeeech loudly. Hollywood has taken note, often replacing an eagle’s call with a hawk’s screech for effect.
