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A Hawk is a Hawk is a Hawk...or Is It?

© P.C. Robinson

My birding experience jump-started when I became enamored with a hawk that visited the office campus where I worked. To reach the campus, I had to take a highway overpass. The hawk perched on a tree barely six inches from the overpass, where he could conveniently watch the highway and campus fields for mice, voles and other small creatures. With his reddish-brown head and back and black-spotted breast, he was beautiful. He also had this air of regality to him, not to mention conceit, if that’s possible to feel in Bird-dom.

I had to know what type of hawk he was. I made inquiries at the local New Jersey Audubon sanctuary and learned he was a red-tailed hawk. I also learned while red-taileds were common in the area, they weren’t the only hawks around. There are a lot of hawks out there, and they come in all shapes and sizes. Sometimes, what we see isn’t a hawk at all, but another type of raptor.

The red-tailed hawk is actually a buteo. Buteos are large birds of prey distinguished by stocky bodies, broad wings and broad, rounded tails. Other buteos include red-shouldered, broad-winged, ferruginous, rough-legged, Swainson’s and short-legged hawks.

Hawks can also be accipiters, The tails of accipiters are longer and narrower than buteos, their wings shorter and more rounded. Sharp-shinned hawks, Cooper’s hawks and Northern Goshawks are accipiters and there is small difference between them. Very often female Cooper’s hawks can be mistaken for sharp-shinned hawks, affectionately called sharpies. While buteos can be found soaring high in the sky, their wings fixed in a shallow V, accipiters tend to glide and have more frequent wing beats.

Falcons are longer-winged than buteos and accipiters, and they have tapered tails. Unlike buteos and accipiters, their wing beats take on a strong, rowing appearance. Falcons include American Kestrels, merlins, prairie falcons, peregrine falcons, and gyrfalcons.

Other types of birds are mistaken for hawks. The Northern Harrier, similar in size and shape to an accipiter, is a kite, as is the osprey, a bird of prey that, because of its white belly and head, is often mistaken for a mature bald eagle.

Mistaken identity is not surprising. Hawks, eagles and kites are members of the Family Accipitridae.

Which brings us to the challenge of identifying hawks in the field (or the air, so to speak). Unless you’re a MENSA member, or have been identifying birds since you were in the womb, there will be times when confusion erupts over what type of bird you see. To alleviate some of that confusion, consider the following: