A Red Tail Hawk in Our Neighborhood – Science – 20

We have noticed that a lot of hawks visits our neighborhood areas in the last several years.

Image 1- A young red tail hawk.

We believe that at least two species of hawks comes and goes to search foods in our yards.

The two species might be:

- red tail hawk with scientific name: Buteo jamaicensis.
- cooper hawk (Accipiter cooperii).

In addition to physical appearances, the different between red tail hawk and cooper hawk is based on referring to their food preferences.

Image 2- Trees, the place we may see hawks

Image 3- A red tail hawk catches a squirrel.

The significant different between red tail hawk and cooper hawk in term of food consumption are:

- red tail hawk consume squirrels and other small animals
- cooper hawk consume birds (smaller birds) only

So, the two photos (Image 1 and 3) of this posting are photos of “red tail hawk,” not cooper hawk, since they eat squirrel.

My neighbors said that they could be “young stage” of red tail hawk. That why they are not “really” like adult red tail hawk.

What do you think?

# Previous postings:

- Lantana for Summer Project in My Backyard – Nature 34
- Declining of Golden Swamp Warblers Population – Nature 35
- Why does Gum Disease cause Alzheimer's?- Part 1 - Alzheimer's 8
- Higher Temperature due to Heat Island Effect – Science 15