Hawk Identification Guide for Common North American Species

Hawks are everywhere, soaring over highways, perched on fence posts, zipping through your backyard after songbirds. But telling one from another can be tricky, especially when they are silhouetted against a bright sky and all you see is a vaguely raptor-shaped outline.

The good news is that North American hawks fall into a few distinct groups, and once you learn the group characteristics, narrowing down to species becomes much easier.

Here is how to approach hawk identification.

The Three Main Groups

Buteos (Soaring Hawks)

Buteos are the large, broad-winged, broad-tailed hawks you see circling on thermals over open country. They have a stocky build, wide wings, and a short, fanned tail. Their flight style is effortless soaring with occasional lazy flaps. Think of them as the gliders of the hawk world.

Common buteos: Red-tailed Hawk, Red-shouldered Hawk, Broad-winged Hawk, Swainson's Hawk, Rough-legged Hawk.

Accipiters (Forest Hawks)

Accipiters are the opposite of buteos.

They have short, rounded wings, long tails, and a flight style built for speed and agility in wooded areas. They fly with a pattern of several quick flaps followed by a glide, and they are extremely maneuverable. If a hawk is chasing songbirds through your yard, weaving between trees at high speed, it is almost certainly an accipiter.

Common accipiters: Cooper's Hawk, Sharp-shinned Hawk, Northern Goshawk.

Falcons

Falcons are not technically hawks, but they are often grouped with them in field guides.

They have long, pointed wings and long tails. Their flight is fast and direct with continuous wingbeats. They hunt in open areas, often catching prey in mid-air with spectacular dives.

Common falcons: American Kestrel, Merlin, Peregrine Falcon.

Identifying the Most Common Species

Red-tailed Hawk

The Red-tailed Hawk is the most common and widespread hawk in North America.

If you see a large hawk sitting on a telephone pole or soaring over a field, it is probably a Red-tail.

Key field marks: Adults have a distinctive rusty-red tail visible from above and when backlit. The belly band, a streaky band of dark markings across the lower chest, is present in most (but not all) plumages. In flight, look for dark marks on the leading edge of the wing near the body (the patagial bars). Red-tails are highly variable in plumage, with dark morphs, light morphs, and everything in between, so do not rely on color alone.

Red-shouldered Hawk

Slightly smaller than Red-tails, Red-shouldered Hawks prefer wooded areas near water.

They are common in eastern forests and along the California coast.

Key field marks: Adults have a warm reddish-orange barring on the breast and a strongly banded tail (alternating dark and light bands). In flight, a translucent crescent-shaped panel near the wingtip is diagnostic. Their call is a loud, repeated "kee-aah" that Blue Jays frequently mimic.

Cooper's Hawk

Cooper's Hawks are the backyard bird feeder raiders.

They are crow-sized accipiters that specialize in hunting other birds. If your songbirds suddenly scatter, check for a Cooper's lurking nearby.

Key field marks: Adults have a blue-gray back, rusty-barred breast, and a long tail with rounded tip and dark bands. The head appears large relative to the body with a dark cap. Flight is the classic accipiter pattern: flap-flap-flap-glide.

Sharp-shinned Hawk

The Sharp-shinned is a smaller version of the Cooper's Hawk, and telling them apart is one of the classic challenges in hawk identification.

Sharpies are jay-sized, with proportionally shorter heads and squared-off tail tips (Cooper's tails are rounded).

In flight, a Sharp-shinned Hawk's head barely projects past the leading edge of the wings. A Cooper's Hawk's head projects noticeably. This is one of the most reliable field marks when the two are compared.

American Kestrel

The smallest and most colorful falcon in North America.

Kestrels are robin-sized and often seen hovering over grassy fields or perched on wires.

Key field marks: Males have blue-gray wings, a rusty back and tail, and two vertical facial stripes (mustache marks). Females are rusty overall with barred backs. Both sexes have the facial stripes, which no other small hawk shares.

Tips for Field Identification

Start with Shape, Not Color

Hawk plumage varies enormously within species. Juveniles look different from adults. Dark morphs look nothing like light morphs. Color is helpful but not always reliable. Shape, on the other hand, is consistent. A Red-tailed Hawk always has broad wings and a short, wide tail regardless of its color.

Watch the Flight Style

Soaring in circles on flat wings: buteo. Flap-flap-flap-glide through trees: accipiter. Direct flight with continuous flapping: falcon. Flight style tells you the group immediately, and that narrows the possibilities to just a few species.

Note the Habitat

Red-tails like open country. Red-shouldereds like forests near water. Cooper's Hawks frequent suburban neighborhoods where bird feeders concentrate prey. Kestrels hunt over grasslands and agricultural fields. Where you see the hawk helps narrow the identification.

Listen

Many hawks have distinctive calls. The Red-tailed Hawk's raspy scream is the sound effect Hollywood uses for every raptor (including bald eagles, which actually have a wimpy chirp). Red-shouldered Hawks repeat a loud "kee-aah." Cooper's Hawks make a rapid "kak-kak-kak" near the nest. Learning a few calls speeds up identification significantly.

Hawk identification is a skill that improves rapidly with practice. Start by learning Red-tailed Hawks thoroughly, since they are the most common and the baseline against which other species are compared. Then branch out to accipiters and falcons. Within a season, you will be identifying hawks from a moving car on the highway, which is both satisfying and slightly concerning for your passengers.