74 



BIRDS OF AMERICA 



RED-SHOULDERED HAWK 

 Buteo lineatus lineatus (Gmelin) 



A. O. U. Number 339 See Color Plate 47 

 Red-shouldered Buzzard; Big 



Other Names. 



Chicken Hawk ; Hen Hawk ; Winter Hawk 



General Description. — Length : male. 20 inches ; 

 female, 22 inches. Spread of wings, 44 to 50 inches. 

 Color above, reddish-brown ; below, lighter reddish- 

 brown, barred and streaked. Four outer primaries 

 notched on' inner webs ; outer webs spotted with white 

 or buff. 



Color. — Head, neck, and back, deep rufous, each 

 feather with a blackish center stripe; chin, throat, and 

 cheeks, dull white with a dusky indistinct mustache; 

 under parts, light rufous, abdomen, sides, and middle of 

 breast with transverse bars of buff; thigh feathers, pale 

 ochraceous ; lower tail-coverts, plain whitish ; lesser 

 Ti'iitg-covcrts, rufous or chestnut with black shaft 

 streaks ; shoulders and middle wing-coverts broadly 

 edged with rufous; secondaries, dark brown tipped and 

 crossed with two bands of whitish ; primaries, dusky- 

 black fading at tips into grayish-brown with square 

 spots of white on outer webs; rump, uniform brownish- 

 black ; upper tail-coverts banded with the same color ; 

 tail, brownish-black barred with six sharply defined 



Photo by H. K. Job Courtesy of Outing Pub. Co. 



NEST OF RED-SHOULDERED HAWK 



This nest was later used by Barred Owls 



narrow bands of white, the last at the tip and the first 

 two concealed by upper coverts ; bill, bluish horn color ; 

 cere and legs, yellow ; iris, brown. Young : Above, 

 plain dark brown without orange-brown or rusty mark- 

 ings ; lesser wing-covcrts. rusty but not so pronounced 

 as in the adult plumage : head. neck, and under parts. 

 white or yellowish-white, rather heavily streaked with 

 drop- or arrow-shaped marks of dark brown; tail, 

 brown crossed by a number of lighter and darker 

 bars : iris, yelloiv. 



Nest and Eggs. — Nest: Usually placed in the fork 

 of a lofty elm. birch, maple, or beech (seldom in a 

 conifer) ; a large bulky structure made almost entirely 

 of sticks. Eggs : 3 to 5. dull white or bluish-white, 

 erratically spotted and blotched with umber and yellow- 

 ish-brown. 



Distribution. — Eastern North .America ; breeds from 

 Manitoba, southern Keewatin, southern Quebec. Nova 

 Scotia. Prince Edward Island, south nearly to the Gulf 

 States, west to edge of the Great Plains: winters south 

 to the Gulf coast. 



Courtesy of Am. Mus. Nat. Hist. 

 RED-SHOULDERED HAWK (; nat. size) 

 A species which is very valuable to the farmer 



Although quite as common in many localities 

 as the Red-tail, the Red-shotildered Hawk is less 

 often seen, since it keeps more within the shade 

 of woods and especially so in swampy tree- 

 covered areas. It is a lighter-btiilt bird than 

 the Red-tail and more impetuous in pursuit of its 

 prey. Its call — a shrill kcc-yoo — is sharper 

 and with less " burr " on the last note. Any one 

 familiar with both species can identify them in 

 life almost as far as they can be seen. The yotmg 

 require more careful inspection, but the slenderer 

 and less-feathered legs with more heavily 

 streaked breast serve to identify them. Ustially 

 the Red-shouldered Buzzards are found in pairs ; 

 they evidently mate for the entire year and 



