18 Magnificent Types of Hawks and Where to Find Them

Red-Tailed Hawk

Named for its distinctive rust-colored tail, the red-tailed hawk (Buteo jamaicensis) is the most common hawk in North America. The red-tail prefers open country and seeks out high perches like roadside poles to watch for prey. It likes small rodents but also eats squirrels, rabbits, bats, snakes, insects, frogs, and other birds. When mating, both hawks will circle as the male performs spectacular dives, sometimes passing prey to the female in mid-flight. During the spring breeding season, pairs build their nests in tall trees and cliff ledges — and increasingly, on tall buildings in urban areas. 

Sharp-Shinned Hawk

Sharp-shinned hawks (Accipiter striatus) are the smallest bird-eating accipiters in North America, with a range extending through Central and South America to northern Argentina. Although these swift, agile woodland hunters will consume rodents and insects, their diet is mainly small birds, which they pluck before eating. Sharp-shinned hawks frequent agricultural, suburban, and urban areas, seeking prey at bird feeders and other places where birds congregate. Adults have gray-blue wings, backs, and heads, with rust-and-white speckled underparts.

Cooper’s Hawk

The striking Cooper's hawk (Accipiter cooperii ) has amber-colored eyes, grey wings, a black tail, and a brown and white speckled breast. It eats birds and small mammals like chipmunks, mice, and squirrels. The stealthy hunter moves silently from tree to tree before swooping down to surprise prey from behind. Researchers have discovered that some hummingbird species cluster their nests near those of Cooper’s hawks in order to protect their eggs from hungry jays, who avoid predators. Both Cooper’s hawk and its close relative the sharp-shinned hawk are increasing in urban areas. 

Rough-Legged Hawk

The large rough-legged hawk (Buteo lagopus) breeds in the Arctic tundra of North America, Asia, and Europe, where it spends summers hunting voles and lemmings before migrating south. Some are dark brown with distinctive white marks, while others display paler patterns. The common name comes from its fully-feathered legs, which, along with a body layer of dense down, help it to withstand the cold. When hunting, the rough-legged hawk often faces into the wind and hovers as it scans for prey, or watches from a pole or high tree branch. Lacking trees on the tundra, it sometimes uses caribou bones as nest material.

Red-Shouldered Hawk

The rusty wings of the red-shouldered hawk (Buteo lineatus ) give way to bold brown and white wing stripes, while the breast displays fine bars of lighter brown and white. It might be difficult to spot in its woodland home, but the red-shouldered hawk’s loud whistle is easy to pick out (though it could be a mimicking blue jay). A group of American crows will sometimes mob these predatory birds—surrounding and harassing them as a defensive act—but the two species may also team up to chase away owls that threaten red-shouldered hawk offspring. 

Ferruginous Hawk

The “regal” ferruginous hawk (Buteo regalis) is the largest buteo in North America. One of the only species to have feathered legs all the way to its toes, the gray-headed hawk takes its common name from its rust-colored back and legs, with white and red wing patterns and a white chest. Less common ferruginous hawks have deeper, more chocolate-toned coloring.

These hawks soar above the prairies, deserts, and other open terrains in the western United States, preying primarily on rodents and other small mammals. In winter, groups of ferruginous hawks often hang around prairie dog colonies, waiting to nab a meal. 

Rufous Crab Hawk

The rufous crab hawk (Buteogallus aequinoctialis) has a lighter underbelly and a bright yellow or orange cere with a black beak. It inhabits coastal mangroves from Venezuela to southern Brazil, with fossil evidence from Jamaica indicating its range once included the Caribbean basin.

Swooping from branches to capture crabs at burrow entrances or hunting them by flying over mudflats, the hawk uses its hooked bill to shell them before eating. It breeds in the spring and is known for dramatic in-flight courtship rituals. The rufous crab hawk has been designated near threatened as it experiences a population decline, likely due to mangrove degradation. 

Northern Goshawk

The medium-large Northern goshawk (Accipiter gentilis) has a large distribution that includes North America, Europe, and Asia, and includes several regional subspecies. These orange or red-eyed hawks have slate-gray backs and white breasts with dramatic gray-black streaks. They live in forests and hunt in woods and along streams and wetlands where they have sufficient cover to surprise prey. Northern goshawks breed from mid-to-late spring. They tend to nest in mature conifers and ferociously defend their nest against perceived threats, including humans. 

Harris's Hawk

Harris's hawk (Parabuteo unicinctus) is a dark brown and copper-colored hawk with yellow legs and cere (bare area above the beak) and white tail markings. It ranges from the southwestern United States to Chile and Argentina. This social creature is a rare raptor species that hunts in groups and applies a cooperative approach to guarding nests by watching and harassing predators. It also practices “back-standing”—a behavior in which hawks stand on top of one another to spot prey and predators. Recent research found that the Harris’s hawk has exceptional color vision, which may play an important role in its hunting success. 

African Harrier Hawk

Found throughout sub-Saharan Africa at elevations up to 10,000 feet, African harrier hawks (Polyboroides typus)—the largest in Africa—have special abilities when it comes to hunting. In addition to hunting from a perch or in flight, they run along a branch or jump between branches in pursuit of prey. Most incredibly, they search for prey by hanging upside down from a tree, thanks to double-jointed knees.

These gray raptors have a black tail with a white band, black and white bars on the breast and leg feathers, and distinctive orange-yellow skin around the eyes. 

Ridgway's Hawk

Found exclusively on the Caribbean island of Hispaniola, Ridgway's hawk (Buteo ridgwayi ) is one of the most critically endangered raptors in the world, with threats from deforestation, hunting, and botfly larvae, which eat its offspring in the nest. Intensive conservation efforts are underway to save it.  

This gray hawk with rust and white barred legs has a varied diet that includes rodents, birds, insects, and amphibians, but reptiles—lizards and snakes—are its primary food. It has a curious nesting behavior, building directly on top of the Dominican Republic’s national bird, the palmchat, to create a two-story, two-species nest.

Swainson's Hawk

When it comes to migration spectacles, few species put on such an impressive show as Swainson's hawks (Buteo swainsoni), which journey by the thousands from the western United States and Great Plains to Argentina. In fact, its migration is one of the longest of the American raptors.

During the breeding season this slender gray, white, and brown hawk soars above open country in search of rodents, rabbits, reptiles, and insects. But in winter, it mostly feeds on large insects, especially grasshoppers and dragonflies, pursuing them on foot as well as in flight.  

Hawaiian Hawk

Known as the ‘lo in the Hawaiian language, the solitary, non-migratory Hawaiian hawk (Buteo solitarius) is Hawaii’s only remaining endemic hawk species. Today the ‘lo is only found on the Big Island of Hawaii, though its population has begun to rebound in recent years. It has a varied, adaptable diet including insects, small birds, mongooses and even shellfish. It can range from dark and medium brown to white with gray mottling, especially on its underparts and wing feathers. 

Pale Chanting Goshawk

This goshawk has an extensive range throughout arid scrubland, savanna, and desert regions of southern Africa. It can swoop down on rodents, but it’s also a swift runner that can catch spiders, insects, and lizards on the ground. It is known to follow other predators and then opportunistically nab prey that their competitors flush out. The pale chanting goshawk has a pewter-gray body with fine black and white barred legs and underbody. Its flashiest physical features are its bright orange beak and legs. The scientific name, Melierax canorus means “melodious hawk,” and it has a distinctive, lovely song. 

Gray Hawk

The smaller, long-tailed gray hawk (Buteo plagiatus) is a neotropical species ranging from the Amazon Basin through Central America and Mexico. Their range barely touches the southern regions of Arizona, New Mexico, and Texas, though populations have recently grown in some borderland areas. In the tropics, they prefer dry forests and savanna tree species; in their northern range they seek out cottonwoods, mesquite, and willows along streams. Gray hawks perform spectacular sky dances during the spring and summer breeding season, and work together to construct their nests. 

Zone-Tailed Hawk

The gray-black zone-tailed hawk (Buteo albonotatus) prefers riparian forest, woodlands, and desert uplands, ranging from the southwestern United States through Central and South America. It takes advantage of the fact that prey often mistake it for a harmless turkey vulture and let down their guard. It is known for dramatic mating rituals involving aerial loops and dives. The drama extends to defense of summer breeding territory, in which competing hawks circle, scream, entangle talons, and fall toward the ground. In flight, it can reach a height of more than 7,000 feet. 

Black-Faced Hawk

This small, black and white hawk (Leucopternis melanops), featuring a dramatic black eye mask and bright orange legs and cere, lives year-round in moist forests and mangroves of northern South America. It hunts and perches below the canopy, seeking out small prey like snakes and amphibians. Its breeding season runs from February to May. 

Crested Goshawk

Found in large areas of tropical Asia, the crested goshawk (Accipiter trivirgatus) features a dramatic crest on the back of its gray-brown head, along with vertical brown streaks and horizontal bars on its underparts. It is a non-migrating resident of lowland forests, hunting small mammals, birds, and reptiles. Some limited populations also live year-round at higher elevations, including the Himalayan foothills in Bhutan and India.