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Hawks, Falcons, Kites, Harriers, Osprey, Etc

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Broadwing Hawk
970 / 978

Broadwing Hawk

Scientific Name: Beauteo platypterus

Appearance: head, back and upper surface of wings are a uniform dark brown, underparts are white with medium to heavy rufous barring. Tail is dark with 2 white bands. Crow-sized.

Size: weight ranges from 14 - 17 ounces, males are smaller than the females. Wingspan ranges 32-36 inches, body measures from top of head to the tail averages 14- 18 inches.

Range: Stays east of the Great Plains, breeds across southern Canada down to eastern Texas and Florida. Winters throughout Central & South America. Likes dense deciduous woodlands.

Food Preferences: Frogs, toads, chipmunks, mice, snakes, lizards, small birds, red squirrels, shrews, small rabbits, caterpillars, insects.

Hunting Technique: Hunts from a tree or other perch, very opportunistic.

Breeding: Aerial courtship, the pair flap, sour in circles darting at and passing close to each other. Monogamous.

Nesting: usually in the crotch of a deciduous tree, sometimes in a conifer. Nest is built fresh each year and usually takes 3 - 4 weeks to construct. Sometimes will use an abandoned squirrel nest or other hawk nest. Nest is lined with lichen, inner bark strips, evergreen sprigs and green leaves.

Eggs: 2-3 white or bluish white eggs, marked with brown.

Chicks: Male and female incubate and care for chicks, incubation lasts 28-32 days, chicks are hatched out helpless, unfeathered and unable to focus. Fledging takes place 35 days later.

Status: Common throughout their northern range April through September, stay in Central and South America for the rest of the year.

NOTES: Broadwing hawks are highly migratory and form huge flocks for the Fall migration. These flocks are called "kettles" due to their contained swirling and mixing behavior. Kettles are common during migration because these birds use thermal updrafts to lift them high in the air - thermals can rise up over a mile! The birds ride these thermals up high, look south for the next one, and when they have all gotten together at the top of the thermal they will peel off and soar over to the next, more southerly thermal. This technique of migrating saves the birds a lot of energy and enables them to move south very quickly.

  • Osprey (Pandion haliaetus) <br /> <br /> Identification Tips:<br /> Length: 22 inches Wingspan: 54 inches <br /> Large, narrow-winged hawk <br /> Flies on flat wings with distinct kink at elbow <br /> Wings taper to a rounded tip <br /> Short hooked beak <br /> White cap <br /> Dark brown eyeline broadening behind eye <br /> Dark brown nape, back and upperwings <br /> Wings from below: flight feathers white barred with black, undersecondary coverts white and underprimary coverts black producing rectangular black mark at wrist <br /> White chin, throat, breast and belly <br /> Brown tail has a number of white bands <br /> Hovers and then plunges into water after fish <br /> Adult male: <br /> <br /> Underparts entirely white <br /> Adult female: <br /> <br /> Dark necklace of streaks on throat <br /> Immature: <br /> <br /> White tips to dark back feathers
  • Osprey (Pandion haliaetus) <br /> <br /> Identification Tips:<br /> Length: 22 inches Wingspan: 54 inches <br /> Large, narrow-winged hawk <br /> Flies on flat wings with distinct kink at elbow <br /> Wings taper to a rounded tip <br /> Short hooked beak <br /> White cap <br /> Dark brown eyeline broadening behind eye <br /> Dark brown nape, back and upperwings <br /> Wings from below: flight feathers white barred with black, undersecondary coverts white and underprimary coverts black producing rectangular black mark at wrist <br /> White chin, throat, breast and belly <br /> Brown tail has a number of white bands <br /> Hovers and then plunges into water after fish <br /> Adult male: <br /> <br /> Underparts entirely white <br /> Adult female: <br /> <br /> Dark necklace of streaks on throat <br /> Immature: <br /> <br /> White tips to dark back feathers
  • Osprey (Pandion haliaetus) <br /> <br /> Identification Tips:<br /> Length: 22 inches Wingspan: 54 inches <br /> Large, narrow-winged hawk <br /> Flies on flat wings with distinct kink at elbow <br /> Wings taper to a rounded tip <br /> Short hooked beak <br /> White cap <br /> Dark brown eyeline broadening behind eye <br /> Dark brown nape, back and upperwings <br /> Wings from below: flight feathers white barred with black, undersecondary coverts white and underprimary coverts black producing rectangular black mark at wrist <br /> White chin, throat, breast and belly <br /> Brown tail has a number of white bands <br /> Hovers and then plunges into water after fish <br /> Adult male: <br /> <br /> Underparts entirely white <br /> Adult female: <br /> <br /> Dark necklace of streaks on throat <br /> Immature: <br /> <br /> White tips to dark back feathers
  • Osprey (Pandion haliaetus) <br /> <br /> Identification Tips:<br /> Length: 22 inches Wingspan: 54 inches <br /> Large, narrow-winged hawk <br /> Flies on flat wings with distinct kink at elbow <br /> Wings taper to a rounded tip <br /> Short hooked beak <br /> White cap <br /> Dark brown eyeline broadening behind eye <br /> Dark brown nape, back and upperwings <br /> Wings from below: flight feathers white barred with black, undersecondary coverts white and underprimary coverts black producing rectangular black mark at wrist <br /> White chin, throat, breast and belly <br /> Brown tail has a number of white bands <br /> Hovers and then plunges into water after fish <br /> Adult male: <br /> <br /> Underparts entirely white <br /> Adult female: <br /> <br /> Dark necklace of streaks on throat <br /> Immature: <br /> <br /> White tips to dark back feathers
  • Osprey (Pandion haliaetus) <br /> <br /> Identification Tips:<br /> Length: 22 inches Wingspan: 54 inches <br /> Large, narrow-winged hawk <br /> Flies on flat wings with distinct kink at elbow <br /> Wings taper to a rounded tip <br /> Short hooked beak <br /> White cap <br /> Dark brown eyeline broadening behind eye <br /> Dark brown nape, back and upperwings <br /> Wings from below: flight feathers white barred with black, undersecondary coverts white and underprimary coverts black producing rectangular black mark at wrist <br /> White chin, throat, breast and belly <br /> Brown tail has a number of white bands <br /> Hovers and then plunges into water after fish <br /> Adult male: <br /> <br /> Underparts entirely white <br /> Adult female: <br /> <br /> Dark necklace of streaks on throat <br /> Immature: <br /> <br /> White tips to dark back feathers
  • Peregrine Falcon
  • Scientific Name: Beauteo jamaicensis <br /> <br /> Appearance: Red tailed hawks have a distinguishing dark "belly band" over a whitish breast. The tail is dark red with a black terminal band. Juveniles and first year red tails have a tail that is whitish underneath like the mature adult, but the top side is brown with black bands - there is no red at all. Juveniles often exhibit brown streaking on their bellies. There are 4 light-morph and 3 dark morph variations recognized within the species. <br /> <br /> Size: weight ranges from 1.5 pounds for a male up to 3.5 pounds for a female. Wingspan ranges from 43 to 52 inches, body from top of head to the tail averages 19 inches. <br /> <br /> Range: Red tails can be found all over the United States, Canada and Alaska. Northernmost red-tails tend to migrate, the others can stay in their ranges all year. Red-tails prefer both open and wooded areas. <br /> <br /> Food Preferences: small rodents, rabbits, squirrels, insects & larvae, fish, snakes. Food preferences of individual red-tailed hawks can be highly variable. For example, our educational bird "Nick" likes the bigger prey such as large rats and squirrels, while her counterpart "Harlan" loves to eat mice and small rats. <br /> <br /> Hunting Technique: Most often will sit on a promising high perch and wait for prey to come near, but also pursues prey at high speeds, dives on it from high in the air, or steals prey from other raptors or crows. Has been documented eating fresh carrion, also can hunt on foot - running down their prey or hopping on it from a short distance. <br /> <br /> Breeding: Monogamous, mate for life. <br /> <br /> Nesting: platform nest of twigs and sticks, often lined and decorated with fresh twigs and strips of bark from nearby trees. The nest can be reused by the same pair for many years. <br /> <br /> Eggs: usually 2 -3 white to bluish-white eggs, spotted with brown or sometimes unmarked, laid in late March. There is usually at least a day-long interval between laying each egg. If for some reason the first clutch of eggs is destroyed, red-tails will sometimes lay a second set 3 - 4 weeks later, usually in another nest. <br /> <br /> Chicks: Incubation lasts about 34 days per egg, young are immobile when they hatch, with downy feathers and open eyes. The young first leave the nest after they are 42 - 46 days old and will stay with the parents for an additional 30 - 70 days. <br /> <br /> Status: dark phase red tails are very rarely seen in West Virginia, although they are plentiful in western states and Canada. <br /> <br /> NOTES: Red Tails are well-known for their keen eyesight: have you ever heard the term "hawk eyed"? If you think of a camera lens, you are pretty much looking at the same mechanism that a red-tail uses to focus and to see far distances. Inside the skull, right where the eye comes out of the skull the eye is surrounded with cartilage plates which are held together by ligaments. Whenever the bird wants to see a far distance all it has to do is constrict the ligaments which constrict the cartilage plates. This in turn makes the eyeball itself elongate, allowing the hawk to zoom in on something over a mile away. Just like the zoom lens on a camera. They also have the ability though to see on 3 different planes with each eye: like having trifocals on and looking through whichever part of the lens they want. AND add to that that their brain is wired to the eyes in such a way that they can see something out of one eye, and another something out of the other eye and keep the two images separate in their minds. Quite a feat!
  • Scientific Name: Beauteo jamaicensis <br /> <br /> Appearance: Red tailed hawks have a distinguishing dark "belly band" over a whitish breast. The tail is dark red with a black terminal band. Juveniles and first year red tails have a tail that is whitish underneath like the mature adult, but the top side is brown with black bands - there is no red at all. Juveniles often exhibit brown streaking on their bellies. There are 4 light-morph and 3 dark morph variations recognized within the species. <br /> <br /> Size: weight ranges from 1.5 pounds for a male up to 3.5 pounds for a female. Wingspan ranges from 43 to 52 inches, body from top of head to the tail averages 19 inches. <br /> <br /> Range: Red tails can be found all over the United States, Canada and Alaska. Northernmost red-tails tend to migrate, the others can stay in their ranges all year. Red-tails prefer both open and wooded areas. <br /> <br /> Food Preferences: small rodents, rabbits, squirrels, insects & larvae, fish, snakes. Food preferences of individual red-tailed hawks can be highly variable. For example, our educational bird "Nick" likes the bigger prey such as large rats and squirrels, while her counterpart "Harlan" loves to eat mice and small rats. <br /> <br /> Hunting Technique: Most often will sit on a promising high perch and wait for prey to come near, but also pursues prey at high speeds, dives on it from high in the air, or steals prey from other raptors or crows. Has been documented eating fresh carrion, also can hunt on foot - running down their prey or hopping on it from a short distance. <br /> <br /> Breeding: Monogamous, mate for life. <br /> <br /> Nesting: platform nest of twigs and sticks, often lined and decorated with fresh twigs and strips of bark from nearby trees. The nest can be reused by the same pair for many years. <br /> <br /> Eggs: usually 2 -3 white to bluish-white eggs, spotted with brown or sometimes unmarked, laid in late March. There is usually at least a day-long interval between laying each egg. If for some reason the first clutch of eggs is destroyed, red-tails will sometimes lay a second set 3 - 4 weeks later, usually in another nest. <br /> <br /> Chicks: Incubation lasts about 34 days per egg, young are immobile when they hatch, with downy feathers and open eyes. The young first leave the nest after they are 42 - 46 days old and will stay with the parents for an additional 30 - 70 days. <br /> <br /> Status: dark phase red tails are very rarely seen in West Virginia, although they are plentiful in western states and Canada. <br /> <br /> NOTES: Red Tails are well-known for their keen eyesight: have you ever heard the term "hawk eyed"? If you think of a camera lens, you are pretty much looking at the same mechanism that a red-tail uses to focus and to see far distances. Inside the skull, right where the eye comes out of the skull the eye is surrounded with cartilage plates which are held together by ligaments. Whenever the bird wants to see a far distance all it has to do is constrict the ligaments which constrict the cartilage plates. This in turn makes the eyeball itself elongate, allowing the hawk to zoom in on something over a mile away. Just like the zoom lens on a camera. They also have the ability though to see on 3 different planes with each eye: like having trifocals on and looking through whichever part of the lens they want. AND add to that that their brain is wired to the eyes in such a way that they can see something out of one eye, and another something out of the other eye and keep the two images separate in their minds. Quite a feat!
  • Red-tailed Hawk (Harlan)
  • Broadwing Hawk
  • Broadwing Hawk
  • American Kestrel (male)
  • American Kestrel (male)
  • American Kestrel (male)
  • American Kestrel (male)
  • American Kestrel (male)
  • American Kestrel (male)
  • American Kestrel (male)
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