Appearance

Appearance

This broad-winged, medium-to-large raptor has a fairly short tail. Many birds show a dark belly band and dark wrist patches below, but plumage varies greatly.

Look-alikes

Rough-legged HawkButeo lagopus

A Rough-legged Hawk has feathers down to the toes; Eastern Buzzard has bare lower legs. Light Rough-legged Hawks also tend to show a white tail base and a broad dark tail tip, but dark birds can be hard to judge from one flight photo.

Why they get mixed up · Both are variable brown raptors with broad wings and dark wrist patches.

Red-tailed HawkButeo jamaicensis

Adults usually show a rusty red tail, while young birds have a brown banded tail. A dark bar along the front edge of the underwing is another clue; distant photos may still be hard to judge.

Why they get mixed up · It is a familiar broad-winged brown hawk across mainland North America.

Where it lives

Typical habitats

• farmland
• grassland
• woodland edges

Range

It breeds across northeastern Asia and Japan, with northern birds moving south in winter. It has no established mainland U.S. population.

Preferred conditions

It favors open ground for hunting with trees, posts, or other high perches nearby.

Behavior

Diet

In its Asian range it hunts rodents, small birds, snakes, and insects.

Activity

It watches from a perch, circles on rising air, or briefly hovers before dropping toward prey.

Name and classification

About the name

It was once included in the Common Buzzard (Buteo buteo), also under the name Buteo buteo japonicus, but is now recognized as a separate species.

Conservation

IUCN Red List

LCLeast Concern·Low risk of extinction