This morning I was looking at the lake when I noticed a large raptor sitting on my neighbor's deck railing.

He was big and stocky. At first I thought it might be an immature eagle but a good look through the binoculars and a quick check of the bird book confirmed it as a Red-tailed Hawk. He sat there for 5 to 10 minutes, flew to a branch on a tree, then flew off. When he flew it was easy to see the characteristic red tail. He was a big sucker. (That's technical birding talk.)

Red-tailed hawks are common around here but you don't see them all that much. The last time I saw one, it was just a flash as it few across the road into the trees followed by that red tail. I've never seen one just hanging out for that long.

Its flight is firm, protracted, and at times performed at a great height. It sails across the whole of a large plantation, on a level with the tops of the forest trees which surround it, without a single flap of its wings, and is then seen moving its head sidewise to inspect the objects below. This flight is generally accompanied by a prolonged mournful cry, which may be heard at a considerable distance, and consists of a single sound resembling the monosyllable Kae, several times repeated, for three or four minutes, without any apparent inflection or difference of intensity. It would seem as if uttered for the purpose of giving notice to the living objects below that he is passing, and of thus inducing them to bestir themselves and retreat to a hiding-place, before they attain which he may have an opportunity of pouncing upon one of them. When he spies an animal, while he is thus sailing over a field, I have observed him give a slight check to his flight, as if to mark a certain spot with accuracy, and immediately afterwards alight on the nearest tree. He would then instantly face about, look intently on the object that had attracted his attention, soon after descend towards it with wings almost close to his body, and dart upon it with such accuracy and rapidity as seldom to fail in securing it.
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Pictures and text by John James Audubon.

What did I learn today? When is a bird an eagle, a hawk, or a falcon? They are all hawks!

The Red Tailed Hawk is in the order Falconiformes. As one of the links below reports: Falconiformes includes all hawks, and accipiter means hawk in Latin, as does buteo (well, an eagle is a hawk and a falcon is a hawk...). Jamaicensis refers to the site of the first discovery and identification of the Red-tail. I'm confused.

They have also been called buzzards. Audubon referred to this bird as the Red-tailed Buzzard as well as a Red-tailed Hawk. If Audubon can be confused, I guess I can be too.

Red-tailed Hawk
Buteo jamaicensis
Red-tailed Hawk
Red-tailed Hawk
Raptor Facts - RED-TAILED HAWK