Red-tailed Hawk (also known as the Chicken Hawk)

The Red-tailed Hawk is a powerful and iconic North American raptor recognized by its broad wings and short, wide tail. Adult birds typically feature a rich brown back and pale underparts with a characteristic cinnamon-red tail, while juveniles lack the red tail and display heavy streaking across the breast. These small body feathers provide essential insulation while contributing to the mottled camouflage of the bird's underparts.

Bicolored pattern featuring a bright, warm reddish-brown or rufous tip transitioning sharply into a clean white basal section, with a thin pale rachis running through the center

Pennaceous at the pigmented tip grading into a loose, plumulaceous base with fluffy, down-like barbs lacking rigid interlocking barbules

Soft and silky at the base due to plumulaceous barbs, becoming slightly smoother and more compact toward the rufous tip

Distinctive bicolored appearance with a solid rufous-brown tip sharply contrasting against a fluffy white base, characteristic of ventral body plumage in various buteo hawks

Extremely adaptable, inhabiting deserts, scrublands, urban areas, roadside corridors, agricultural fields, coniferous and deciduous forests, and grasslands

Widespread throughout North America, ranging from Alaska and northern Canada down through the United States, Mexico, and into Central America and the Caribbean

Acts as a top avian predator, helping to regulate populations of small mammals, rodents, and reptiles, thereby maintaining balanced grassland and forest ecosystems

Other Buteo species such as the Swainson's Hawk or Ferruginous Hawk, which can share similar rufous breast or flank tones, though exact patterning varies by age and morph

Red-tailed hawks have exceptional vision, allowing them to spot a mouse from 100 feet in the air. Their soaring call is the quintessential Hollywood scream often used in movies to represent any eagle or hawk.

Good condition, clean with intact barbs and no obvious signs of severe wear, fading, or parasitic damage