Red-tailed Hawk (Common Red-tail, Hen Hawk)

The Red-tailed Hawk is a powerful and heavily built raptor with broad wings and a short, wide tail. Adults typically feature a rich brown back, pale underparts with a streaked belly band, and their signature brick-red tail. They are masters of the thermal soaring flight style, often seen wheeling slowly in wide circles high above open landscapes.

Rich rufous-brown base color with distinct dark brown or blackish transverse barring and white mottling along the inner web; prominent bright orange-red or reddish-brown coloration on the robust rachis

Strongly pennaceous with tightly interlocked barbs and barbicels creating a firm, aerodynamic vane; intact barbs with no significant fraying

Stiff, smooth, and rigid along the vanes with a matte finish; optimized for aerodynamic efficiency and durability during high-wind soaring

Striking rufous-brown and dark transverse banding combined with a bright reddish-orange central rachis and asymmetrical pennaceous structure

Extremely adaptable, found in open country, deserts, scrublands, urban areas, grasslands, and agricultural fields backed by scattered trees or utility poles

Widespread throughout North America, ranging from Alaska and northern Canada down to Panama and the West Indies; resident year-round across most of its range

Apex avian predator playing a crucial role in regulating rodent and small mammal populations, serving as a primary indicator of grassland and open-country ecosystem health

Ferruginous Hawk and Swainson's Hawk feathers can appear similar, but lack the distinctive rufous tones and bright orange rachis combination typically associated with mature Red-tailed Hawks

Red-tailed Hawks have phenomenal eyesight, allowing them to spot a mouse from 100 feet in the air. Their iconic piercing scream is frequently used in Hollywood films to sound like any soaring eagle or hawk, regardless of context.

Good condition; the vane is mostly intact with minimal wear along the edges, suggesting it was dropped during the annual summer molt and weathered very little before discovery

Nathrop Colorado by Chalk Creek