The Red-Shouldered Hawk

Aug 05, 2010

By Steve Blight

For me, a welcome sign that spring is right around the corner is the loud, repeated "kee-aah," calls of the Red-shouldered Hawk. Every year since we bought our cottage on Bobs Lake, we have been greeted by this very vocal hawk early in the breeding season when it is busy courting and establishing its territory. The bird prefers mature deciduous or mixed-wood forests containing shade-tolerant hardwood trees like maples and beeches close to water – lakes, ponds streams or major wetlands. As deep forests and plentiful surface waters are hallmarks of the Land O’Lakes area, it isn’t surprising that our area is one of the “hotspots” in the province and the country for this majestic bird of prey.

What may be more surprising is that the Red-shouldered Hawk isn’t a common bird – in fact it’s listed as a species of special concern under the federal Species at Risk Act. It used to be much more common throughout its eastern North America range, but as its preferred hardwood forests were converted to farmland and settlements, its numbers dropped, with dramatic declines observed from the late 1950s through to 1970. However, since about 1970, populations in Canada appear to have either stabilized or increased, likely thanks to elimination of some chemical pesticides and the regrowth of some hardwood forests. According to federal government information, the Canadian population is now estimated at 2000 to 5000 pairs, with almost all of them breeding in southwestern Quebec and southern Ontario.

Red-shouldered Hawks are handsome, medium-sized raptors. They measure from 40 to 61 cm (16-24 inches) in length with a 1 meter (about 40 inches) wing span. Like many raptors, female Red-shouldereds are larger than the males, but have similar colouring. The upper parts are mainly brown, and the shoulders are reddish. The breast and belly are barred white and reddish-brown. The tail is blackish with narrow white bars on adults. Immature birds are more uniformly brown with streaked underparts, and attain adult plumage after 18 months. The species may be confused with the similar Broad-winged Hawk, which share the same forested habitat, but the Broad-winged is smaller and has broader white bars across its tail. Northern breeding birds leave for the United States in late October or early November, although some have been known to stay in Ontario through the winter if prey is plentiful.

The species constructs bulky stick-nests lined with bark, leaves and lichens, halfway up large, mature trees. Preferred nesting trees usually have straight trunks and few lower branches. Apparently the beech is a favoured nesting tree in Ontario, and the hawk rarely leaves the woods surrounding its nesting site during breeding season. Females lay one clutch of two to four eggs annually, at two to three day intervals, usually in mid to late April. Females provide most of the incubation for eggs and generally all of the brooding for young, while males supply the female and young with nearly all their food until the young are ready to leave the nest by late June or early July. Their diet consists mainly of small mammals, birds, reptiles and amphibians, and they are known for their habit of returning to the same breeding site year after year.

There are a few things that landowners can do if they wish to help ensure that Red-shouldered Hawks continue to grace our forests for future generations of Land O’Lakers:

Try to maintain as much of the canopy of your woodlot closed as possible if you are harvesting trees.

Leave some large, mature beech trees in your woodlot.

Leave lots of large woody debris on the forest floor to attract prey animals.

Limit the amount of chemical pesticides used on your lands.

Leave wetlands you may have on your property in their natural state.

Leave trees that appear to have nests in them that could be those of the red-shouldered hawk.

Please feel free to report any observations to Lorraine Julien at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.  or Steve Blight at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.