YEEEEEEEEE...
HEAVENLY FATHER SEES TO IT THEM RAPTORS BE FED TOO!
The red-tailed hawk is one of the most widely scattered hawks in the Americas. It breeds from central Alaska, the Yukon, and the Northwest Territories east to southern Quebec and the Maritime Provinces of Canada, and south to Florida, the West Indies, and Central America. The winter range stretches from southern Canada south throughout the remainder of the breeding range.[19]
Its preferred habitat is mixed forest and field, with high bluffs or trees that may be used as perch sites. It occupies a wide range of habitats and altitudes, including deserts, grasslands, coastal regions, mountains, foothills,coniferous and deciduous woodlands, tropical rainforests, agricultural fields and urban areas.[1] It is second only to the peregrine falcon in the use of diverse habitats in North America.[22] It lives throughout the North American continent, except in areas of unbroken forest or the high Arctic.[13]
The red-tailed hawk is widespread in North America,[22] partially due to historic settlement patterns, which have benefited it. The clearing of forests in the Northeast created hunting areas, while the preservation of woodlots left the species with viable nest sites. The planting of trees in the west allowed the red-tailed hawk to expand its range by creating nest sites where there had been none. The construction of highways with utility poles alongside treeless medians provided perfect habitat for perch-hunting. Unlike some other raptors, the red-tailed hawk are seemingly unfazed by considerable human activity and can nest and live in close proximity to large numbers of humans.[10] Thus, the species can also be found in cities, where common prey such as rock pigeons and brown rats may support their populations.[23] One famous urban red-tailed hawk, known as "Pale Male", became the subject of a non-fiction book, Red-Tails in Love: A Wildlife Drama in Central Park, and is the first known red-tail in decades to successfully nest and raise young in the crowded New York City borough of Manhattan.
The cry of the red-tailed hawk is a two to three second hoarse, rasping scream, described as kree-eee-ar,[23] that begins at a high pitch and slurs downward.[27] This cry is often described as sounding similar to a steam whistle.[5] The red-tailed hawk frequently vocalizes while hunting or soaring, but vocalizes loudest in annoyance or anger, in response to a predator or a rival hawk's intrusion into its territory.[23] At close range, it makes a croaking "guh-runk".[28] Young hawks may utter a wailing klee-uk food cry when parents leave the nest.[29] The fierce, screaming cry of the red-tailed hawk is frequently used as a generic raptor sound effect in television shows and other media, even if the bird featured is not a red-tailed hawk.[30][31]
The red-tailed hawk is carnivorous, and an opportunistic feeder. Its diet is mainly small mammals, but it also includes birds and reptiles. Prey varies with regional and seasonal availability, but usually centers on rodents, comprising up to 85% of a hawk's diet.[5] Most commonly reported prey types include mice, including both native Peromyscus species and house mice; gophers, voles, chipmunks, ground squirrels and tree squirrels.[32][33]Additional prey (listed by descending likelihood of predation) include lagomorphs, shrews, bats, pigeons, quail, corvids, waterfowl, other raptors, reptiles, fish, crustaceans, insects and earthworms.[10] Where found in Caribbeanislands, red-tailed hawks prey mostly on reptiles such as snakes and lizards, since these are perhaps the most predominant native land animals of that region.[10] Prey specimens can range to as small a size as beetles and worms. However, they can also prey on marmots, white-tailed jackrabbits, small domestic dogs, domestic cats, or female wild turkey, all of which are easily double the weight of most red-tails.[10] Although they prefer to feed on fresh prey they've killed themselves, these hawks are not above occasionally consuming carrion.
The great horned owl occupies a similar ecological niche nocturnally to the red-tail, taking similar prey. Competition may occur between the hawk and owl species during twilight, although the differing nesting season and activity times usually results in a lack of direct competition. Although the red-tail's prey is on average larger (due in part to the scarcity of diurnal squirrels in the owl's diet),[33] the owl is an occasional predator of red-tailed hawks themselves, of any age, while the hawks are not known to predate adult great horned owls.[32] Other competitors include other large Buteo species such as Swainson's hawks and rough-legged hawks, as well as the northern goshawk, since prey and foraging methods of these species occasionally overlap.[35][36] Hawks have been observed following American badgers to capture prey they flush and the two are considered potential competitors.[37] Competition over carcasses may occur with American crows, and several crows working together can displace a hawk.[38] Larger raptors, such aseagles and ferruginous hawks, may steal hawk kills.
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