Red-tailed Hawk (also known as the chicken hawk or red-tail)

The Red-tailed Hawk is a large, powerful raptor with broad wings and a short, wide tail. Adults typically feature a brick-red tail contrasting with pale underparts and a streaked belly band. They are masters of soaring flight, often seen circling high over open fields.

Rich chocolate brown and creamy white alternating horizontal bands or bars along the length of the feather, with a sturdy pale whitish-tan rachis

Pennaceous upper vane with tightly interlocked barbs and barbicels, transitioning into a plumulaceous fluffy base with a distinct downy afterfeather

Stiff, smooth, and durable on the pennaceous portion for aerodynamic efficiency, with a soft, downy texture at the proximal base

Distinctive bold dark brown and white horizontal barring across a broad vane with a sturdy, pale central rachis

Extremely adaptable, inhabiting deserts, scrublands, urban areas, scrub, woodlands, agricultural fields, and tropical rainforests

Widespread throughout most of North America, from Alaska and northern Canada down through Central America and the Caribbean

Acts as an apex avian predator helping to control rodent and small mammal populations, serving as an important ecological indicator of healthy prey bases

Swainson's Hawk, Ferruginous Hawk, and Broad-winged Hawk, distinguished primarily by size, exact banding width, and color tones

Red-tailed Hawks have phenomenal eyesight, capable of spotting a mouse from a height of 100 feet. They are also famous for their piercing, raspy scream often used in Hollywood movies to sound like any soaring eagle or hawk

Good condition with minor fraying along the edges of the lower barbs, but structurally intact with no major breaks or fault bars