Our 12 Months of Birding series continues with with our March pick, the Red-shouldered Hawk. This medium sized hawk is a forest raptor and so it’s not unusual to see them here inside Pisgah National Forest.
They also like water, so you will sometimes see them perched above our pond and wetlands at the southern end of the property. Listen for their distinctive call.
Red-shouldered hawks have reddish chests and black and white checkered wings and tail feathers. Their heads can be different colors depending on where you live – brownish in the eastern U.S., light gray in Florida and rusty red in California.
Our crows do NOT like our red-shouldered hawks. But we think they’re pretty cool. Learn more at allaboutbirds.org/guide/Red-shouldered_Hawk.
[Photo credit: Dominic Sherony, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons]