Red-shouldered Hawk

Like many birds of prey, the Red-shouldered Hawk declined because of persecution, habitat loss, and possibly pesticides in the early 20th century. In New Hampshire it was listed as threatened in the 1980s, but since then our population has rebounded and the species is widespread south of the White Mountains. Some of its recovery may be attributable to increasing tolerance for human activity and thus nesting in suburban areas. As winters warm it is also becoming a more regular sight from December to February in the southeastern part of the state.

Red-shouldered Hawks are early migrants, and birds that didn’t overwinter start arriving in late February or early March. They can be extremely vocal as they establish territories in mixed forests, usually near water, and are easily detected by their piercing “kee-aah” call. Be aware that this call is often mimicked by Blue Jays, so a visual confirmation is generally recommended. This is especially true in the winter when the hawks are much less vocal than the jays.

Their diet consists largely of small rodents, but because they are often associated with swamps and floodplains they also consume numbers of snakes, frogs, and even crayfish. Most of the time they hunt from a perch in the forest canopy, dropping down on unsuspecting prey. Occasionally they will hunt over fields or wetlands, or on the ground by ambushing small mammals as they emerge from burrows.