Juvenile Red-shouldered Hawk (Buteo lineatus)

juvenile Red-shouldered Hawk

The Red-shouldered Hawk is relatively abundant in the northeast, but in comparison to the familiar Red-Tailed Hawk commonly seen soaring high over open terrain, is more local and secretive, found in the forest interior near wetlands. For many years, the Lloyd Center saw an adult Red-shouldered Hawk up close (affectionately named “Hawk”) as an Animal Ambassador, with its trademark rust-tinged shoulder and similar rich orange horizontal barring on the breast. This breast coloration and pattern is also characteristic of the adult Sharp-shinned and Cooper’s Hawks, our two common accipiters, for which the juvenile has a more drab plumage and darker brown vertical streaking.  Compared to the California and Florida sub populations of the Red-shouldered Hawk, for which the juveniles closely resemble the adults, the juvenile of the northeastern type follows the same plumage pattern of those accipiters, however with a more even streaking pattern on the breast (Sibley, 2000).  

even streaking visible

This juvenile bird was found feeding on a deceased Canada Goose during our winter waterfowl survey at the mouth of the Slocum River near the Lloyd Center property, with both the even streaking of the breast (pic) and the faint orange shoulder patch (pic) confirming the identification as a Red-Shouldered Hawk.  With the similarities to the Cooper’s Hawk, which is similar sized and always present near our feeder station each winter harassing songbirds, it was first suspected to be a juvenile Cooper’s. However the call is quite unmistakable and helped confirm the identification when the bird screamed from the woodland edge, clearly annoyed at being flushed from the salt marsh and its meal.

Starvation and mortality of wildlife during harsh winter is a routine occurrence.  Deer and turkeys are searching for food through deep snows, coyotes are crossing iced over estuaries in search of food (seen on Slocum this same day), songbirds visit feeders when ice and snow reduces access to plants and insects, raptors (Cooper’s, Sharp-shinned Hawk) linger near those feeders when rodents become hidden beneath snow, and waterbirds search for open water and aquatic food sources while sometimes suffering frozen feathers and reduced mobility. While we don’t know the cause of death of the Canada Goose, perhaps it was winter starvation, and the hawk then found the

faint red shoulder visible

carcass when it washed ashore.

In addition to the lesson in tricky juvenile raptor identifications, these rigors that wildlife endure during harsh winters were evident with this sighting, the hawk taking advantage of an opportunistic rare feast on an unforgiving landscape. Although the bird eventually flushed, us being able to approach closely while the hawk continued eating unfazed for many minutes, showed that during this harsh time of food scarcity, the survival instinct is in high gear and human disturbance more tolerated.

Our winter waterfowl survey is a reminder that our unique coastal zone has open estuary waters that are bustling with life throughout winter, while snow and ice create havoc from the salt marsh landward. But the hawk sighting was survival of the fittest on display, on a frozen stage fit for inquisitive humans.