Ferruginous Hawk

 
Scientific name:  Buteo regalis
Family Name:  Accipitridae

Are they endangered?  No, they are not endangered worldwide.  (IUCN Red list:  Least concern)
What are their past/present problems?  It’s against the law to kill these birds, but hunters do sometimes.  They get killed by cars.  Most important is that they are losing their habitat because farmers are putting out poison to kill pests like insects and MICE that these birds eat.  Then the pests eat the poison and the hawks eat the dead pest and die, too.  They also lose their habitat to fires.

What do they look like?  They are yellow above their beaks and on their feet.  Their backs have reddish brown on its top wings, dark brown with gray at its middle and a white tail with light brown tips. Its belly is white with reddish brown stripes.

How big are they?  They are about 2 feet long.  If you spread their wings out as far as they would go, they would stretch to almost 6 feet wide.

How many eggs do they lay?  Females lay from 2 to 6 blue/white eggs once a year.  Eggs hatch in about a month.

How long do the fledglings stay in the nest?  These hawks like to make their stick nests in almost any size tree.  If they don’t have trees where they want to live, they will make nests on cliffs.  The nests are lined with stuff they find and manure! The young birds stay in the nest for 3 months.
When do they hunt?  They hunt during the day. (diurnal)

What do they eat?  Ferruginous Hawks like to eat ground squirrels and prairie dogs the most, but also rabbits, MICE, birds and snakes.
Where do they live?  They live in Canada, United States, and Mexico.

What kind of place do they like to live in?  They like shrub land, grassland, and desert areas.  They like to live in farm areas.
Interesting facts:
Their feathers go from their heads down to their feet.

Some people have nicknamed them squirrel hawks because they eat lots of ground squirrels.

Ferruginous Hawks will fly in one place (hover) when they are looking for prey.  This is unusual for hawks.
Works Cited:

Alderfer, Jonathan.  Complete Birds of North America.  Washington, D.C.:  National Geographic, 2006.

Alsop, Fred.  Birds of North America.  New York:  DK Publishing, 2001.

Buteo regalis.  17 Dec. 2007.  <http://www.iucnredlist.org/search/details.php/40253/all>.

Donovon, Amy.  Birds of Prey.  Washington, D.C.:  National Geographic Society, 1998.

Ferruginous hawk.  5 Oct. 2007.  <http://www.peregrinefund.org/Explore_Raptors/hawks/ferrugin.html>.

Schmoker, Bill.  “Re: Owl pictures (etc.).”   [Hawk & flying Hawk]  E-mail to Club Web.  2 Nov. 2007.