Editor’s Note
We heard from a Poudre Valley REA member and reader in mid-October who correctly identified the bird pictured with the article as an immature Cooper’s Hawk, not a Red-tailed Hawk. We appreciate our “hawk-eyed” readers who are able to educate us and let us know of published errors.
The photo accompanying Dennis Smith’s article, “Feathered Fine and Fierce” in the October issue appears to me to be an immature Cooper’s Hawk (an Accipiter), not a Red-tailed Hawk as claimed in the article. An immature Cooper’s Hawk has the long tail of an Accipiter, with 3 wide, dark tail bands, as shown in the photo. An immature Red-tailed Hawk would be a bulkier-bodied bird, with several (7-9) narrow, dark bands on a shorter tail. The large, flattened head and stout legs and talons suggest that the bird is a Cooper’s Hawk and not the similar but smaller Sharp-shinned Hawk. Accipiters like the Cooper’s Hawk feed primarily on other birds (as described in the article), and frequently nest in yard trees in cities like Loveland. Although Red-tailed Hawks occasionally will take birds, their diet consists primarily of mammals. I suspect that the birds Mr. Smith observed were Cooper’s Hawks, not Red-taileds.
I was in the driveway loading my car with fishing gear one rainy afternoon not long ago when a red-tailed hawk sailed over my head so low I could have hit it with a broomstick. It was clutching a dead bird in its talons, probably a dove. It floated across the street, lit atop the neighbor’s cucumber trellis, and began feeding on its prey. My camera was sitting on the front seat of the car, so naturally I wondered if the hawk would let me take its picture.
I began snapping pictures from where I stood because I figured he would fly off the minute he saw me take a step in his direction. I assumed it was a male, but I honestly couldn’t tell you because the males and females look a lot alike. And, while females are usually significantly larger and heavier than males, that distinction is difficult to make unless both members of a pair are together. In this case, there was only the one. I am fairly certain it was a young bird, though, because it still bore the darkcolored horizontal tail bands of a juvenile. Apparently, they retain those color bands until they are 1 to 1 1/2-years-old, after which they acquire the solid, red-brown tail colors for which they are named.
Interestingly, though, not all red-tail hawks have red tails. Their tail feathers can vary from reddish-brown to black and sometimes even white — and several shades in between. There are regional differences, too: Eastern populations have slightly shorter wings, white throats, white breasts, and a well-defined band across the belly. Western birds are more variable with light and dark phases, streaked or mottled tails, and so on. Some sources recognize at least a dozen subspecies of red-tailed hawks. Consider that they look very similar to Swainson’s, broad-winged, red-shouldered, and rough-legged hawks, and you can understand why most of us find them tricky to identify.
A few years ago I was sitting in my chair in the living room when a tremendous crash at the nearby window scared the you-knowwhat out of me. I looked up to see a puff of feathers floating in the air and a splotch of feathers and “stuff” smeared across the pane. I assumed a dove had slammed into the window, but when I went outside to check, I found a huge red-tailed hawk lying on his back, shredding a Eurasian collared dove.
The hawk gave me a very indignant look, righted itself, and lumbered into the air on enormous 4-foot wings, the hapless dove still clenched in those fierce talons. I hollered at him — “Don’t ever do that again!”— went back inside, and immediately poured myself a tranquilizer. I also moved the chair to a safer place.
Dennis Smith is a freelance outdoors writer and photographer whose work appears nationally. He lives in Loveland.