Red-tailed hawk Facts for Kids
Buteo jamaicensis · BYOO-tee-oh juh-may-SEN-sis
A common hawk that watches for small animals from high perches.
- 🏃 speed: not yet checked
- ⚖️ 1.8 to 2.7 lb800 g to 1.2 kg1
- 📏 19 to 26 in48 to 65 cm1 long
- 🎂 22 years22 years1
- 🍽️ meat
- Doing fine (Least Concern)
A red-tailed hawk is a big brown bird with a rusty red tail. It sits on high perches and watches for food. It lives in open country.
Red-tailed hawks live in open country with high places to perch, such as grassland, farm fields, parks and woodland edges, across the United States, Canada and Central America. Most of their food is small rodents.
The red-tailed hawk is one of the most common hawks. It lives across the United States and Canada and down into Mexico and Central America, in open country with high perches: grassland, farm fields, city parks and the edges of woods. Most of its food, about four meals out of five, is small rodents. The rest is rabbits, reptiles and other birds.
How big is a red-tailed hawk?
Red-tailed hawk in numbers
| Length | 19 to 26 in48 to 65 cm1 |
|---|---|
| Height at the shoulder | no checked number yet |
| Weight | 1.8 to 2.7 lb800 g to 1.2 kg1 |
| Top speed | no checked number yet |
| How long it lives | 22 years22 years1at least; the oldest known wild hawk |
| What it eats | mostly small rodents, and sometimes rabbits, reptiles and other birds |
| Where it lives | open country with high perches, such as grassland, farm fields, parks and woodland edges, across North and Central America |
| What kind | Birds |
| Is it in danger? | Doing fine (Least Concern)2 |
A number we couldn’t find on a page we trust says so, instead of guessing.
Wow!
- A red-tailed hawk watches for food from a high perch.
- Most of its food is small rodents.
- It lives in parks and farm fields as well as grassland.
Compare the red-tailed hawk
Friends and neighbours
Bald eagle
Great horned owl
CoyoteThree questions
Books about the red-tailed hawk, free at the library
Ask a grown-up to tap the button: it shows where to borrow a book about the red-tailed hawk for free.
For teachers
Use this animal in class: its facts are on this page, and the cards print from it.
Where these numbers come from
- University of Michigan Museum of Zoology, Animal Diversity Web: Buteo jamaicensis (red-tailed hawk), checked 10 November 2026.
- Wikidata, from the IUCN Red List, checked 10 November 2026.
- Wikidata, Red-tailed hawk (Q457471), checked 30 October 2026.