White-tailed Hawk Identification

The Four Keys to ID

• Size & Shape

  A big, eagle-like hawk with very broad wings that narrow or pinch in slightly where they meet the body. The wings are also very long, and the wingtips extend past the tail tip at rest. The legs are fairly long.

  Relative Size

  Slightly larger than a Swainson’s Hawk, smaller than a Bald Eagle.

  between crow and goose

  Measurements

  • Male
  • • Length: 18.1-20.5 in (46-52 cm)
    • Weight: 31.0-43.6 oz (880-1235 g)
    • Wingspan: 50.4-51.6 in (128-131 cm)
  • Female
  • • Length: 18.9-22.8 in (48-58 cm)

  © Brian Sullivan / Macaulay Library

• Color Pattern

  Adults are steely gray above with brick-red in the “shoulders” (actually the upperwing coverts and scapulars). They are clean white below, with black band on white tail. Immatures are dark chocolate brown above, speckled dark below with a white breast patch and a finely banded tail. An all-dark morph is rare in immatures.

• Behavior

  White-tailed Hawks hunt while perched or, more often, on the wing, either hovering or kiting as they scan the terrain for prey. They drop quickly on mammals, birds, reptiles, taking them with their talons, then returning to a perch to consume the catch. Courtship may involve paired flights, grass-pulling by the male, or perhaps talon-grasping in flight.
• Habitat

  Resident in coastal prairies, savanna, grasslands, and pasture in southern Texas and parts of Mexico and Central and South America.