Speaker 1: Welcome to Brainstuff, a production of iHeartRadio. Hey, brain Stuff,
Speaker 1: Lauren Boglebaum here, surely you've seen a majestic bald eagle
Speaker 1: sweep across a television or movie screen while it makes
Speaker 1: its familiar call, a harsh, keening scream. Super producer Tyler,
Speaker 1: can we get that bird call? If you've heard this,
Speaker 1: it wasn't an eagle at all, but rather the piercing
Speaker 1: shrill of a red tailed hawk. Because the smaller and
Speaker 1: more prevalent redtailed hawk has a much mightier voice than
Speaker 1: its larger cousin, the bald eagle. Hollywood regularly dubs over
Speaker 1: the call of the bald eagle with that of the
Speaker 1: red tailed hawk to toughen up the symbol of America.
Speaker 1: The bald eagle actually boasts a little cackling type of call.
Speaker 1: That's not very impressive. Do we have one of those
Speaker 1: in the library? Yet another reason I agree with Ben
Speaker 1: Franklin who thought the turkey would have been a better
Speaker 1: choice for National bird, But today we're talking hawks. There
Speaker 1: are more than two hundred species around the world, and
Speaker 1: around twenty five that make their homes in the United States,
Speaker 1: but the red tailed hawk is probably the most common
Speaker 1: species in North America. These big birds can be spotted
Speaker 1: soaring above rural regions from coast to coast and perching
Speaker 1: anywhere with scattered elevated seeding from which to watch open areas.
Speaker 1: They were first taxonomically described in Jamaica, which is how
Speaker 1: the red tailed hawk got its species name, Beauteo jamakensis.
Speaker 1: They are also known as chickenhawks and buzzard hawks. Although
Speaker 1: they avoid tundra and thick forest, they are more adaptable
Speaker 1: than any other hawk in the Beauteo genus. Their varied
Speaker 1: habitats include scrub desert plains, grasslands, agricultural fields, pastures, parks, woodlands,
Speaker 1: tropical rainforests, suburbs, and cities. Red tailed hawks have red tails,
Speaker 1: which might sound pretty obvious, but it actually takes an
Speaker 1: entire year for the birds to develop their namesake tail.
Speaker 1: A chicks hatch with a sort of sleety gray colored fluff,
Speaker 1: and juveniles develop increasingly dark, spotted, white, and brown coloration
Speaker 1: over the course of several months. About a year after
Speaker 1: they hatch, they'll molt their brown tail and grow their
Speaker 1: mature copper to brick colored tail feathers. The male and
Speaker 1: female birds don't have noticeably different coloration. All red tailed
Speaker 1: hawks have yellow legs and feet, with long, sharp claws,
Speaker 1: and a bit of yellow at their sear, which is
Speaker 1: the fleshy upper base of their short hooked beak, which
Speaker 1: is itself gray in color. Other than that, their exact
Speaker 1: coloration can vary by region and subspecies, of which there
Speaker 1: are about fifteen. Eastern birds have a brown head and back,
Speaker 1: a white throat and chest, and a band of brown
Speaker 1: streaks that run lengthwise down the belly. Western birds tend
Speaker 1: to have streakier bellies. A Great Plains variety called Crider's
Speaker 1: hawk is pale with a whitish colored head and washed
Speaker 1: out pink in the tail. South Texas forms are darker
Speaker 1: above but without the dark belly band below. Dark morph
Speaker 1: birds can occur anywhere, but are more common in western
Speaker 1: North America, particularly up in Alaska and northwest Canada, where
Speaker 1: the all dark Harlan's hawk is common. These birds have
Speaker 1: a stocky body with broad wings, and they often fan
Speaker 1: out their tail during flight. There is some variation in
Speaker 1: size among red tailed hawks subspecies, with the largest birds
Speaker 1: occurring in the northern populations and the smallest in the south.
Speaker 1: They can grow to about twenty two inches in length
Speaker 1: from beak to tail, that's fifty five centimeters, with a
Speaker 1: wingspan of around fifty fifty two inches, that's one hundred
Speaker 1: and thirty centimeters. That's almost four and a half feet.
Speaker 1: That's a lot of bird. The female birds tend to
Speaker 1: be a bit bigger than the males. During ordinary flight,
Speaker 1: red tailed hawks are a little slower than ducks or geese.
Speaker 1: They fly around the normal speed of neighborhood traffic, maybe
Speaker 1: up to like forty miles an hour or sixty five
Speaker 1: kilometers an hour, but when they go into a dive,
Speaker 1: they accelerate like a highly tuned race car. A red
Speaker 1: tailed hawk can spot prey from a distance of some
Speaker 1: hundred feet or thirty meters up, and can swoop down
Speaker 1: at speeds of over one hundred and twenty miles an
Speaker 1: hour or nearly two hundred kilometers an hour. For the article,
Speaker 1: this episode is based on how Stuff Works, spoke via
Speaker 1: email with Rick Schwartz, a global ambassador for California's San
Speaker 1: Diego Zoo. He explained they can see colors like most
Speaker 1: humans can, as well as those in the ultra violet range.
Speaker 1: This means that hawks can perceive colors that humans cannot see.
Speaker 1: Red tailed hawks are diurnal hunters, but see black and
Speaker 1: white well enough to also hunt at dusk, the time
Speaker 1: when nocturnal animals, especially rodents, begin to awaken and move around.
Speaker 1: These predators have a nictating membrane, a clear inner lid
Speaker 1: that cleans the eye and protects it while the hawk
Speaker 1: is wrestling with its prey. Red tailed hawks will eat
Speaker 1: carrion when times are tough, but they prefer live prey
Speaker 1: and especially the aforementioned rodents like mice, voles, rabbits, and squirrels,
Speaker 1: with the occasional snake, lizard, and small bird thrown in
Speaker 1: for good measure. How stuffworks also spoke via email with
Speaker 1: Scott Barnes, now the bird's programs director at the New
Speaker 1: Jersey Audubond Society. He explained they hover hunt by flapping
Speaker 1: in place over potential prey and by swooping down to
Speaker 1: grab a meal with their sharp talons. Or they perch hunt,
Speaker 1: which is exactly what it sounds a sitting on a perch,
Speaker 1: sometimes a telephone pole and watching for prey. A Once
Speaker 1: an item is spotted, the hawk drops off its perch
Speaker 1: and tries to grab a meal. They are clever hunters.
Speaker 1: Some birds have been observed faking out venomous snakes by
Speaker 1: flaring their wings out, encouraging the snake to strike harmlessly
Speaker 1: at their feathers, then going in for the kill. On
Speaker 1: the flip side of the food chain. Adult red tailed
Speaker 1: hawks can be preyed upon by larger raptors like eagles,
Speaker 1: or sometimes by mammals like bobcats, but most predators find
Speaker 1: them too big to want to mess with. However, the
Speaker 1: hawk's first year of life is perilous, Schwartz said. Great
Speaker 1: horned owls and crows prey on red tailed hawk eggs
Speaker 1: and nestlings. Owls compete with red tailed hawks for nest sites.
Speaker 1: Both birds are known to kill the young and destroy
Speaker 1: the eggs of the other in an attempt at taking
Speaker 1: a nest site. If they make it through their youth,
Speaker 1: red tailed hawks can live about twenty years in the wild.
Speaker 1: The oldest known is thought to have been at least
Speaker 1: thirty years old when it was found in twenty eleven
Speaker 1: in Michigan, the same state where it had been banded
Speaker 1: in nineteen eighty one. Some red tilled hawks haunt the
Speaker 1: same areas year round, but others migrate with the seasons,
Speaker 1: seeking warmer weather and more abundant prey, they might go
Speaker 1: alone or move with family groups. Red tails pair up
Speaker 1: for life, and their aerial courtship is a daring air
Speaker 1: show of flight bravado as the birds lock talons and
Speaker 1: spiral downward together. Schwartz said the more migratory red tailed
Speaker 1: hawks of the North have dramatic displays, while the more
Speaker 1: sedentary birds of the South don't seem to work as
Speaker 1: hard to impress their mates. Although red tiled hawks mate
Speaker 1: for life, it doesn't mean a surviving partner won't go
Speaker 1: on to mate again, even returning the next season to
Speaker 1: the breeding territory it knows best, and during the spring,
Speaker 1: which is breeding season, a pair will build a bulky
Speaker 1: nest high above the ground. A female will lay two
Speaker 1: to four eggs and incubate them for about a month.
Speaker 1: The male helps feed her during this time, and both
Speaker 1: parents may feed the young when they hatch. The young
Speaker 1: stay in the nest for another month and a half
Speaker 1: before starting to range out on their own, though they
Speaker 1: may stay with their family for half a year, and
Speaker 1: young birds don't tend to start a family of their
Speaker 1: own until their second spring. Red tailed hawks are protected
Speaker 1: under the US Migratory Bird Act, and because they're beneficial
Speaker 1: for rodent and grasshopper control, they're considered wild friends to farmers.
Speaker 1: It is illegal to mess with them or their nests.
Speaker 1: Should you ever come across an injured hawk or other
Speaker 1: bird of prey, get in touch with a locally licensed
Speaker 1: wildlife rehabilitator. They'll know what to do to help the
Speaker 1: bird out and get it back where it belongs in nature.
Speaker 1: Today's episode is based on the article redtail talks are
Speaker 1: way bigger, faster, and more common than you realize on
Speaker 1: HowStuffWorks dot Com, written by Wendy Bowman. Brain Stuff is
Speaker 1: production of iHeartRadio in partnership with HowStuffWorks dot Com. It
Speaker 1: is produced by Tyler Klang. Four more podcasts from iHeartRadio
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