Plate 51 – Red-Tailed Hawk

The eclectic taste of the Red-tailed hawk might be partly responsible for the bird being so widespread. The bird will even “condescend to pounce on wood-rats.” Barnyard chickens were once a prime target. John James Audubon knew of settlers fighting back by locating the nest of a Red-tailed hawk, watching closely for the chicks to hatch before shooting the parents, chopping down the tree containing the nest, and using the ax to hack to bits the chicks that survived the fall. Establishing farms and settlements in North America was unquestionably a bloody business. The Red-tailed hawk covers so much area that it has since been divided into intergrades and five subspecies (Eastern, Southwestern, Western, Krider’s, and Harlan’s). Within the Eastern subspecies there is even a Dark Morph.