Rough-Legged and Red-Tailed Hawks, and Telling Them Apart
Okay, so we already did the harrier, the one that tips side to side like it's had one too many. This lesson is the two hawks people mix up with everything else out here, including each other, including, in my case one time, an eagle.
I should just tell you that story now instead of burying it. I once spent a solid twenty minutes telling my friend Leslie I'd spotted a bald eagle sitting up in a tree near the trail. I was so pleased with myself. Pointed it out, described the white head, the whole thing. It was a plastic bag. A big white plastic bag caught on a branch, doing a very convincing eagle impression in bad morning light. Leslie still brings this up, honestly, and as she should. I tell you that not to make myself sound foolish for no reason, though I am, but because it's exactly the trap you fall into with red-tails and rough-legs too. You see a shape, you see a patch of white or dark, and your brain fills in the rest before you've actually looked. Slow down. Look twice. The bird will still be there.
Red-tailed hawk first, because you already know this one
You've seen a red-tailed hawk. Everyone has, whether they knew it or not. It's the hawk sitting on the light pole next to the freeway, the one perched on a fence post out toward the point of the mountain like it owns the fence. It's our most common hawk by a wide margin, so start here and build out from it.
Shape: broad, chunky, a stocky build. Wings are wide and rounded at the tips when soaring, not pointed.
The tail: rust red on top, which is where the name comes from, but here's the thing, in bad light that red can look almost brown or even gray, so don't hang everything on seeing red. From underneath, look for a dark leading edge on the front of the wing near the body, sometimes called the "patagial mark." That little dark bar shows up in a lot of red-tails and it's more reliable than the tail color most winter mornings.
Belly band: a lot of red-tails have a stripe of darker streaking across the belly, like someone cinched a dark belt around a lighter bird. Not every one has it clearly but a lot do.
Behavior: they perch a long time, watching, then they soar in wide circles, wings held in a slight upward V, what birders call a dihedral, though I don't love jargon so just picture the wings tipped up a little at the tips like a shallow smile.
Rough-legged hawk, the winter visitor
This one you will not see in summer. Rough-legged hawks breed way up in the Arctic and only come down here for winter, so if you're seeing one, it's a seasonal treat, which I think is part of why I like them.
Shape: similar size to a red-tail but the wings read a little longer and narrower to me, and there's often a dark patch at the wrist, on the underside of the wing, that looks almost like a bruise.
Behavior, and this is the one that'll save you: rough-legged hawks hover. Actual hovering, wings beating in place, hanging over a field like a kite on a string, looking for voles. Red-tails don't really do this. If you see a hawk-shaped bird hanging in one spot in the air over open ground, that's very likely your rough-leg. It's one of my favorite things to watch out there because it looks like so much work and they just keep at it.
Tail: often has a dark band near the tip against a lighter tail, but again, color's the last thing I'd trust from a distance in January light.
Perching: rough-legs like to perch on the very tips of thin branches or on utility wires, out at the ends where a heavier red-tail really can't balance as well. Red-tails go for the sturdier spots, thicker branches, solid fence posts. That's a small thing but it's added up for me over four winters.
Practical steps for this week
- Find open fields, not woods. Both these hawks want visibility and rodents, so farmland edges, open pasture, the sagebrush flats, that kind of ground.
- Scan fence lines and utility poles before you scan the sky. Half your hawks are sitting still, watching you drive or walk past.
- If a hawk-shaped bird is hovering in place over a field, don't even bother with color. Call it rough-legged and watch how long it holds that position. It's genuinely impressive.
- Check the wingtip shape when it's soaring. Broad and rounded, probably red-tail. Longer and narrower with that dark wrist patch, rough-leg.
My opinion here, same one I keep coming back to all winter: learn shape and behavior before you learn color. Color lies constantly out on the ice and the fields at 8am, it's all backlit or washed out. The way a bird holds its wings, whether it perches on a thick branch or a thin one, whether it's hovering or just sitting there judging you, that's the real information. Color's just the last little confirmation once you already have a guess.
And do actually look twice before you call it. Ask yourself what you're seeing move, not just what you're seeing sit there. I still think about that plastic bag.
Before next time
See if you can spot one hawk perched and one hawk soaring, and just note which kind of spot it chose and how it held its wings. Don't worry about naming it right on the spot.