Red-Tailed Hawk

Next time you are walking on campus take a look up at the top of the light posts around you and chances are you will see a large bird on top of one of them. It seems every day when I park my car or head to the parking lot after work I can find a Red Tailed Hawk perched above me. Sometimes I am luckier and the hawk will be flying overhead showing off its massive wingspan. 

The bird you see is most likely a Red-Tailed Hawk. If you haven’t seen a Red-Tailed Hawk on campus, you may have seen one perched high atop a utility pole along the highway. Heck, I’ve even seen one at Mid Rivers Mall’s parking lot! The Red-Tailed Hawk is one of the most common hawks in North America. This hawk is a large bird of 2-4 pounds with a wingspan of 43 to 57 inches. There are many color variations but most red-tailed hawks have a dark brown back, pale underparts and a brick colored tail. The Red-Tailed Hawks I have seen on campus tend to have brown and white streaks on their underparts. They almost look spotted from afar. This coloration makes it easy for them to blend into the rocks and camouflage themselves while hunting for prey. Something I find interesting is that not all Red-Tailed Hawks have a red tail because the Red-Tailed Hawk is actually a grouping of 14 sub-species (some of which do not have the red tail). Also, the female hawk is larger than the male. These raptors have strong, hooked beaks and a loud voice that has been compared to a steam whistle. The call of the Red-Tailed Hawk is frequently used in media as a generic raptor sound effect even if the bird is not a Red-Tailed Hawk.

The Red-Tailed Hawk has keen eyesight. It can spot a mouse from the height of 100 feet. The hawk’s eyesight is 8 times as powerful as humans. They are efficient hunters which makes them a great bird for falconry (the art of training falcons for hunting). However, falconers can only use the hawks for falconry if the bird has left the nest and has yet to reach its breeding age (around 2 years old). Otherwise the birds are protected by law.

Red-Tailed Hawks eat everything from small Beetles to Jackrabbits twice their weight. Rodents comprise up to 85% of the Red-Tailed Hawk’s diet. They also eat mice, ground squirrels and lizards. Sometimes the Red-Tailed Hawk has to compete with Crows over carcasses. The Great Horned Owl is also a competitor to the hawk because it hunts the same prey and uses the same foraging method. The Red-Tailed Hawk also competes with the Owl for nest sites. The most predation of these hawks occurs with eggs and nestlings being taken by owls and raccoons. 

Something I read about but have yet to witness is the mating ritual of the monogamous Red-Tailed Hawk. It is an acrobatic display in which the birds dive and roll in the sky before falling to the earth. They even grab ahold of one another with their talons before breaking apart. They later nest in trees and incubate their eggs for 30 days. (Both the male and female incubate the eggs.) Young hawks are called “eyeasses” and after 42-46 days they begin leaving the nest for short flights. This fledgling period lasts up to 10 weeks. It is during this time in which the birds learn to fly and hunt. I wish I could see a baby hawk. Maybe the hawks around here will lay some eggs! 

I chose to write about this bird today because of one particular red-tailed hawk that frequents our campus.  Just outside my window across the lake there are rocks that soak up the sun and provide a nice warm perch for birds to sit. Every day at some point I look outside and a Red-Tailed Hawk is staring in the direction of the bookstore. He/she sits on the highest rock and perches proudly. Almost as if he/she is guarding me. I’m sure it is just looking for food or taking a break from hunting, but it is still reassuring to sometimes tell myself that it is actually my guardian-hawk looking after me! 

The Red-Tailed Hawk is just one more species of feathered friends that SCC is home to and I am constantly grateful for its presence.

The Belted Kingfisher

I have been waiting all day to have a chance to tell you about the bird I saw today. I actually saw this same bird a few days ago, but I had unfortunately left my binoculars at home and by the time I noticed the bird he had flown away. So I was extremely happy to have the chance to see him again today.

It happened when I was taking a break around 3:00 pm. I was taking a little stroll around the lake outside the bookstore (my usual bird siting area) and enjoying the beautiful, sunny weather. After a few minutes with my binoculars in hand and no birds around I started to get disappointed and realized I should go inside and get back to work. Just when I was approaching the doorway, I heard a squirrelly chirping noise and lo and behold we had a bird visitor!

As soon as I saw the way the bird was hovering about 30-50 feet over the water I knew exactly what he was going to do next (because I had seen a bird like him do it before). I got out my binoculars and watched as he abruptly dove head first into the water and came flying out with a bright orange fish hanging from his beak. How cool!

After he caught the fish, the bird flew over to the rocks across the lake and sat on top proudly holding his goldfish. He seemed very pleased with himself. Once he was perched on the rock it was easier for me to get a good look at him through my binoculars. He had a beautiful bluish head and back, and white throat and underparts. The feathers were kind of iridescent and purplish and they contrasted so beautifully with the bright white collar around his neck. He had an interesting shape, too. He was very tiny but he had a pretty large head with a shaggy crest. He was stocky with a fairly long beak and a short tail. What a pretty bird!

I went inside and immediately began searching through id pictures for my latest visitor. He was blue, but not a blue-jay. He resembled a tree swallow, but he didn’t have the long tail and tree swallows don’t eat fish! Wait a minute---FISH! He’s a Kingfisher!

A Belted Kingfisher to be exact. Turns out Belted Kingfishers are one of few bird species in which the female is more brightly colored than the male. (This is known as reverse sexual dimorphism.) There are 93 different species of kingfishers but the Belted Kingfisher is the only member of that group commonly found in the US and Canada. I had no idea this bird lived anywhere NEAR us here in the Midwest. He looked almost tropical or exotic!

The Kingfisher I saw was most likely a male because he was lacking the reddish feathers on his chest. He did have the dagger-like bill and the crest on top of his head though. He was stocky and stout and overall CUTE. When identifying this bird, however, the dead-giveaway was his behavior. It is described as an ‘aerial dive’ type of feeding. These birds are pros at it. They watch the water from a perch or while hovering and plunge into the water headfirst in order to catch prey in their bill. This is exactly what I saw my bird do with the goldfish. In addition to fish they eat amphibians, insects, small mammals and reptiles.

The bird’s call is described as a “loud rattling cry” or a “heavy fishing reel” but I think it sounded more like a squirrel or a louder version of hummingbird chatter. If it weren’t for this loud call I probably would have missed the bird completely so it’s a good thing they are so vocal.

The Kingfishers nest in burrows and banks near lakes, rivers and ponds. Human activity such as digging gravel pits and building roads has actually expanded the breeding range for Belted Kingfishers because it has created banks where they can build nests.

Thanks to this bird visitor we can add "Belted Kingfisher" to the list of birds spotted on SCC Campus. I really hope this guy becomes a frequent flier at our school!