Red-shouldered Hawk

Look for

A medium-sized buteo with strongly-barred rufous chest, black-and-white checkered wings, bold black-and-white banded tail, and chestnut "shoulders" visible when perched. In flight: pale translucent crescents at the base of the primaries — a diagnostic "window" in the wing that glows in sunlight.

Size: ~17" — smaller than Red-tailed Hawk, bigger than Broad-winged.

Listen for

• Call: a high, clear, "kee-aah! kee-aah!" — a descending, plaintive scream, often given 4–8 times in rapid succession.
• Blue Jays mimic this call nearly perfectly — a classic Memphis-backyard ID puzzle.

Where in Memphis

The bottomland hawk. While Red-tailed Hawks dominate open interstates and fields, Red-shouldered Hawks rule the flooded woods and river corridors.

• Wolf River Greenway — very reliable
• Meeman-Shelby Forest
• Overton Park Old Forest
• T.O. Fuller
• Anywhere with big trees + water + frogs

Year-round resident. Pairs hold territories for decades.

Behavior

• Sit-and-wait hunters in forested areas — perch on a branch, drop on prey.
• Eat mostly cold-blooded prey: snakes, frogs, crayfish, lizards.
• Noisy — they scream during territorial displays and to each other constantly.
• Nest in tall trees in flooded woods, 30–60 ft up. Same nest reused for years.

Story

The Blue Jay mimic problem

Blue Jays in Memphis mimic Red-shouldered Hawk calls so accurately that entire bird neighborhoods go silent when a jay does it. Why? Best guess: to clear feeders of competition, or to warn the jay's own neighborhood of a real hawk. Either way, you cannot trust a Red-shouldered Hawk call to actually be a Red-shouldered Hawk without visual confirmation.

The bottomland specialist

Red-shouldered Hawks are indicator species for healthy bottomland hardwood forest. Their populations declined alongside Southern swamp destruction in the 1900s; they've partially rebounded as Memphis-area bottomlands have been restored (Wolf River Conservancy, etc.).

The Memphis vs everywhere else

Eastern Red-shouldered Hawks (our birds) are darker, more richly-colored than Western or Florida forms. Memphis birds are classic Eastern — a handsome variant.

Fun facts

• The translucent wing windows are visible only against bright sky from below — one of birding's most elegant field marks.
• They sometimes follow humans or even deer in the forest, hunting small prey flushed by movement.
• Oldest known wild Red-shouldered Hawk: 25+ years.
• They rarely pose on fence posts (unlike Red-tailed) — they prefer high tree perches over water.