Red-tailed Hawk in Lancaster

I’ve had fun watching this photogenic Red-tailed Hawk this week right outside the Wild Birds Unlimited Nature Shop in Lancaster, PA.  It seems to be focused on trying to capture one of the many House Sparrows that live in the bushes around the parking lot.  Red-tails are sit-and-wait predators.  They find a high perch and carefully watch for unsuspecting prey before diving from above.  Check out this hawk’s outstretched talons as it dove from one of the overhead light fixtures into a bush.  The curved bill of a hawk may look like a formidable weapon, but its sharp talons and powerfully muscled feet are the main tools it uses to capture prey.

I was mildly surprised to see this hawk putting so much effort into catching sparrows.  Although Red-tailed Hawks will eat practically any animal small enough to capture, they heavily focus on mammals like mice, voles, rats, and rabbits.  Songbirds are smaller and harder to catch, and Red-tails typically show a preference for the largest available prey.  With so many House Sparrows in the parking lot, perhaps it was just too hard to resist.  Songbirds have much more to fear from some of our other hawks, like Cooper’s Hawks and Sharp-shinned Hawks, which are better adapted to capture small birds.

Look for Red-tailed Hawks in mostly open habitats like grassland, farmland, or parks.  They need some large trees or utility poles to use as hunting perches.  They also thrive along highways, where rodents are attracted to the side of the road to find trash thrown from car windows.  Once near the road, the rodents are exposed and easy to see in the mowed grass.  It’s a great time of year to see Red-tailed Hawks in the Susquehanna Valley.  We have more Red-tails here between October and March because we host some hawks that migrate here from nesting grounds in Canada.