A red-tailed hawk does most of its hunting from a perch, and it scans the ground for food by soaring in wide circles or by perching on a tree or telephone pole. Red-tailed hawks are often seen perched on poles and signs beside roads, they like open land with high places to perch, and they are active during the day. Red-tailed hawks are built for soaring. A red-tailed hawk has excellent eyesight, and its vision lets it detect the movements of prey at great distances.

A red-tailed hawk can spot a mouse from 100 feet up in the air. Estimates say a red-tailed hawk sees two to three times as sharply as a person, and some say as much as eight times. Red-tailed hawks also have a third eyelid, the nictitating membrane, which they can close when perched to shield their eyes from wind. A red-tailed hawk dives down and grabs its food in its talons, which can be up to 1.33 inches long. Red-tailed hawks eat mostly small mammals, such as mice, and they also eat reptiles and other birds.

A red-tailed hawk is named for the reddish color of its tail, and red-tailed hawks come in many colors, from nearly white to black. The sizes that sources give do not match exactly, and each source gives its own numbers. One source says a red-tailed hawk is 18 to 26 inches long. Montana lists the red-tailed hawk as length 19 to 25 inches with a wingspan of 46 to 58 inches, and Animal Diversity Web gives the length of red-tailed hawks as 48 to 65 centimeters. A red-tailed hawk has a wingspan of about 4 feet, and female red-tailed hawks are larger than males.

In courtship, a male red-tailed hawk soars in wide circles, then dives steeply and climbs again, and he might catch prey and pass it to a female in midair or perform repeated dives. Red-tailed hawks may mate for life. Red-tailed hawks usually nest in a tall tree in or at the edge of woodlands, and the pair builds the nest of sticks 4 to 21 meters above the ground. The nests are usually 28 to 38 inches across, and a pair of red-tailed hawks uses the same nest year after year.

A female red-tailed hawk lays one to five eggs, and the eggs are kept warm for 28 to 35 days before they hatch. A newly hatched chick weighs only about 2 ounces, and both parents care for their chicks. While the female tends the young, the male hunts and brings food to the family, and the female feeds the nestlings small pieces of food. Young red-tailed hawks leave the nest after 42 to 46 days, and they become completely independent from their parents about 10 weeks after fledging, at about 112 to 116 days old.

Red-tailed hawks live across North America and into Central America, in many kinds of places, including deserts, plains, woodlands and rain forests. Adult red-tailed hawks tend to keep the same territory for their whole life, and the San Diego Zoo says a territory can be as large as 9.6 square miles (25 square kilometers). Red-tailed hawks from the far north fly south for the winter, while many others stay in one place all year. As of October 2025, Montana's field guide says red-tailed hawk populations appear stable or increasing.

Words to know

• perch: a high seat
• talons: sharp claws
• nictitating: blinking
• territory: claimed space
• nestlings: young nest birds
• fledging: first flight