A Hawk is a Hawk is a Hawk...or Is It?

My birding experience jump-started when I became enamored with a hawk that visited the office campus where I worked. To reach the campus, I had to take a highway overpass. The hawk perched on a tree barely six inches from the overpass, where he could conveniently watch the highway and campus fields for mice, voles and other small creatures. With his reddish-brown head and back and black-spotted breast, he was beautiful. He also had this air of regality to him, not to mention conceit, if that’s possible to feel in Bird-dom.

I had to know what type of hawk he was. I made inquiries at the local New Jersey Audubon sanctuary and learned he was a red-tailed hawk. I also learned while red-taileds were common in the area, they weren’t the only hawks around. There are a lot of hawks out there, and they come in all shapes and sizes. Sometimes, what we see isn’t a hawk at all, but another type of raptor.

The red-tailed hawk is actually a buteo. Buteos are large birds of prey distinguished by stocky bodies, broad wings and broad, rounded tails. Other buteos include red-shouldered, broad-winged, ferruginous, rough-legged, Swainson’s and short-legged hawks.

Hawks can also be accipiters, The tails of accipiters are longer and narrower than buteos, their wings shorter and more rounded. Sharp-shinned hawks, Cooper’s hawks and Northern Goshawks are accipiters and there is small difference between them. Very often female Cooper’s hawks can be mistaken for sharp-shinned hawks, affectionately called sharpies. While buteos can be found soaring high in the sky, their wings fixed in a shallow V, accipiters tend to glide and have more frequent wing beats.

Falcons are longer-winged than buteos and accipiters, and they have tapered tails. Unlike buteos and accipiters, their wing beats take on a strong, rowing appearance. Falcons include American Kestrels, merlins, prairie falcons, peregrine falcons, and gyrfalcons.

Other types of birds are mistaken for hawks. The Northern Harrier, similar in size and shape to an accipiter, is a kite, as is the osprey, a bird of prey that, because of its white belly and head, is often mistaken for a mature bald eagle.

Mistaken identity is not surprising. Hawks, eagles and kites are members of the Family Accipitridae.

Which brings us to the challenge of identifying hawks in the field (or the air, so to speak). Unless you’re a MENSA member, or have been identifying birds since you were in the womb, there will be times when confusion erupts over what type of bird you see. To alleviate some of that confusion, consider the following:

Location. Where you are matters! If you’re in New Jersey marshlands in November and a long, brown bird with a white patch on its rump is hovering close to the ground, chances are you’re looking at a female Northern Harrier. If you’re in Lettuce Lake outside Tampa in February, and you see a large brown bird with white belly hanging out eyeing the lake, it’s an osprey.

Timing. Familiarize yourself with migration times in your area. Chances are the speck you see high in the sky in June in New Jersey is a red-tailed hawk, not a rough-legged hawk. This is because rough-legged hawks winter in New Jersey; their summer breeding grounds are in the Arctic Circle.

General appearance and size. Distance, position, and lighting play major roles in helping you determine what you’re seeing. Familiarize yourself with silhouettes, shapes and sizes. Slim merlins are usually no more than a foot in length; chunky red-taileds can be close to two feet. As birds approach from the distance, watch the tilt of their wings: falcons keep their wings straight; accipiters wings’ tend to dip slightly. Buteo wingtips tilt upward.

Calls. My aural skills are pathetic, but I do know the difference between an osprey’s cry and that of the red-tailed. While challenging, getting to know raptor calls enhances your expertise.

Field guide. Familiarize yourself with the illustrations or photos in your favorite field guide. In time you’ll begin to differentiate the markings of not just buteos, accipiters and falcons but also males, females, and immatures. The red-tailed hawk shown in the photo below is a female. (TAKE THIS HINT: The male Northern Harrier is smaller than the female harrier. He is also gray, as opposed to brown. You could impress your less-experienced birder-friends with this information some day).

Finally, get experience. One of the best ways to immerse yourself in hawk identification is to find a hawk watch and visit several times. Hawk watches are conducted every spring and fall along major flyways in the United States. Visiting a local bird rehabilitation center will also help you see birds up close and personal. The Raptor Trust in Millington, New Jersey, is nationally renowned for its bird rescue efforts, education programs, and collection of permanently injured birds of prey.