Red-shoulders; Red-tails... What's the difference?

William Wise Photo Nature Notes is a wildlife, birding and nature photography blog documenting the wonders of God’s creation. "Great are the works of the LORD, studied by all who delight in them. Full of splendor and majesty is His work." Psalms 111:2

Red-shouldered Hawk; Walton County, GA. Photo #201211144

​​Tuesday, 12:39 PM – Monroe, Georgia.  A few weeks back I had watched a hawk sail and land in the wood line near Walton Pond 2 behind my office. My curiosity peaked, I went back by the pond, this time with my eyes up in the trees. Narrowing his landing down to a grouping of tall pines and Sweetgums, I didn’t find the hawk, but the possibility of its nest. 

Today’s sixty-one degree, partly sunny afternoon afforded some warm rays and I decided to go sit under that nest I had previously spied out. After sitting 30 minutes reading Bartram’s Travels and seeing nothing, lunch break was over and I headed back toward my office. Just as I neared the back of the shelter, out from the woods and right in front of my face flew a large hawk. But what kind? A Red-tailed or a Red-shouldered? 

As he circled over the pond, my initial clue to his identity was the bold black and white markings on the wings and tail. No more need be known; I was looking at a beautiful Red-shouldered Hawk (Buteo lineatus). The black and white banding on the tail being the “tail-tell” sign. The Red-tailed Hawk (Buteo jamaicensis), being appropriately named, sports a red tail that lacks the bold black and white banding. 

​While the banded tail tells all, there are also several other differentiating clues. The Red-tailed Hawk, also common in this area, is a bit larger. Besides the tail being red, it is also much shorter than his Red-shouldered cousin’s tail. On September 29, 2012 as I was studying to better my skills at identifying hawks, a gorgeous Red-tail perched on a snag across from my house in Athens, Georgia, affording me a living illustration. His shorter red tail could be clearly seen as he sat with his back toward my front porch where I sat with a cup of coffee in one hand and Wheeler and Clark’s “Photographic Guide to North American Raptors” in the other. 

The chests of these two raptors can also give a clue to their identities.  As the hawk circled over the pond behind my office and rose higher into the air, I could discern the distinctly reddish-orange barred chest characteristic of the Red-shouldered Hawk. The Red-tailed Hawk possesses a darker streaked belly band just below a usually bare chest.
   
The size of the nest I had earlier observed was also a clue to this hawk’s identity. According to the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, the Red-shouldered Hawk’s stick nest is about 2 feet in diameter and lined with bark, lichens, and conifer sprigs. The Red-tail’s nest is larger, being a tall pile of dry sticks up to 6.5 feet high and 3 feet across. 

If all these clues weren’t enough, a study of the habitat in which I observed this hawk would be another clue to his identity. Red-tails usually occupy open habitats such as grasslands, pastures, and fields.  Red-shouldered Hawks are forest raptors and tend to live in open sub-canopy stands near water; perfectly describing the pond and woods behind my office.
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After buzzing my face and circling the pond, my Red-shouldered Hawk disappeared below the horizon back near the grove of trees near where I had been staking out the nest. Perhaps, before I disturbed him, he was sitting and watching the banks of the pond to make a meal of the Northern Watersnake I had seen just the afternoon prior. Imagine, I sit below a hawk nest for nearly an hour and see nothing, only to be nearly hit in the head by him while walking back indoors! 

​Walton County, Georgia