Red-tailed Hawk

Look for

A big, bulky buteo with broad, rounded wings and a relatively short, fan-shaped tail. Adults have a brick-red tail — unmistakable in good light from above. A dark "belly band" of streaking crosses the pale chest.

In Memphis, this is the hawk you see on a highway light-pole. The one on the I-240 sign-post. The one on the powerline next to Shelby Farms. A dozen in a 10-mile drive isn't unusual.

Size: ~20", wingspan ~4 feet. Males smaller than females (as in all raptors).

Listen for

• Call: a fierce, descending scream — "kee-eeeeeer" — that drops in pitch and trails off. This is the cinematic "eagle call" — Hollywood dubs this sound over every bald eagle shot in every movie. You've heard a Red-tailed Hawk more times than you realize.
• Immature birds give a harsher, squeakier version of the same call.

Where in Memphis

Wherever there's an open view and a perch.

• Interstate edges — I-240, I-40, I-55. They hunt mowed medians and shoulders.
• Shelby Farms — open fields
• Agricultural fields across Shelby County
• Cemeteries with open ground
• Powerline perches everywhere
• Soaring high overhead on thermals in summer

Resident all year, but numbers swell in winter as northern Red-tails move south.

Behavior

• Perch-and-scan hunters. They sit on high perches, scanning for movement, then drop or glide onto prey.
• Eat almost anything mid-sized: rats, voles, mice, gray squirrels, cottontails, snakes, pigeons, the occasional smaller hawk.
• Mate for life and hold the same territory for years — often decades.
• Nest in big forks of large trees, returning to the same nest year after year.
• Display flights in late winter: pairs lock talons mid-air and tumble in spiral cartwheels.

Story & folklore

The fake eagle scream

Here's the best Red-tailed Hawk fact: every "eagle" scream you hear in movies and TV is actually this bird. Bald Eagles have wimpy, squeaky, high-pitched calls that sound comical. Hollywood sound designers dub the Red-tailed Hawk's ringing scream over eagle footage to match the majesty of the visual.

The Red-tailed Hawk is the voice of America's mythic eagle. Even the call you hear on Air Force videos is this bird.

"Chickenhawk"

Old Southern name, used loosely for any hawk that occasionally raids a henhouse. Red-tails and Cooper's Hawks both got stuck with it. Now mostly a historical term — and a slang insult that branched into American political vocabulary by accident.

The urban colonizer

Red-tailed Hawks are thriving in American cities. New York's famous Pale Male (a Red-tail who nested on a Fifth Avenue apartment building for 30+ years) made headlines in the 1990s. Memphis has its own Downtown Red-tails — nesting on buildings, overpasses, and urban oaks. They've adapted to pigeon-as-prey and skyscraper-as-cliff.

Native American significance

Across many Indigenous cultures in North America, Red-tailed Hawk feathers were (and are) considered sacred, often interchangeable with eagle feathers for ceremonial use. Cherokee tradition treats the Red-tail as a messenger and a watcher. Feathers of this species are federally protected under the Migratory Bird Treaty Act — you cannot legally possess them.

Rodent control

One Red-tailed Hawk pair eats thousands of rodents per year — they're one of the most important predators keeping rat and vole populations in check across the Memphis metro.

Fun facts

• Red-tailed Hawks have eyesight ~8x sharper than humans — they can spot a mouse from 100 feet up.
• A dozen "morphs" of plumage exist — eastern birds are classic pale-chested; western "Harlan's" Red-tails are nearly black; rufous, light, dark, and intermediate types exist.
• They mate for life — wild pairs can stay together 20+ years.
• Falconers prize them — Red-tailed Hawks are the most commonly trained hawk in North American falconry because they're tough, common, and adaptable.
• Oldest known wild Red-tail: 30+ years.
• They are depicted on more than a dozen state seals, flags, and coins across the U.S. — often standing in for "American eagle" imagery.
• Immature Red-tails have brown tails — they don't get the red until their second year.

Field notes (to add)

• Audio: the scream (and the Hollywood-eagle comparison)
• Photo: adult red tail from above
• Roadside survey: how many Red-tails on the drive from Downtown to Collierville?
• Comparison with Red-shouldered Hawk (banded tail, smaller) and Cooper's Hawk (longer tail, slimmer)