Red-shouldered Hawk

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Red-shouldered Hawk

	Scientific name: Buteo lineatus
	Family name: Accipitridae
	Are they endangered? No, they are not threatened worldwide. (IUCN Red list: Least concern) They are, however, endangered in some places. An example is that these birds are endangered in the United States. (New Jersey) They are also listed of concern in New York state.
	What are their past/present problems? In places where they are endangered, there were lots of reasons why the number of these birds decreased. One reason is that farmers thought they were killing their chickens and hunters thought they were taking too much of their game. Red-shouldered Hawks were killed because of this. Nowadays, these birds are affected when people cut down the forests to build houses.

What do they look like? The back and wings of these birds is dark brown with white edges on their feathers. Their ‘shoulders’ are a reddish-brown like you would guess. Their bellies are white with reddish-brown lines on them. Their legs are yellow.

How big are they? They are between 17 and 24 inches long. If they spread out their wings, they would be 2 ½ - 4 feet wide.

How many eggs do they lay? The female lays 2-6 white eggs once a year. The eggs take about a month to hatch.

How long do the fledglings stay in the nest? Their nests are made of sticks, tree bark, leaves, and pine needles. The nest is next to the trunk of the tree and usually very high up in very tall trees. Young birds (fledglings) leave the nest in about 6 weeks.

When do they hunt? They hunt during the day. (diurnal)

What do they eat? They eat birds, insects, frogs, and MICE!

Where do they live? They like to live in forests that are in low or flat areas. They live in any kind of forest—leafy, evergreen, or a mixture of both.

What kind of place do they like to live in? They like forests and low flat lands.

Interesting facts:

	They use the same nest each year, adding more stuff to it each time.
	They will sit on a perch and swoop down on prey or catch it as they are flying.
	It may be called the swamp hawk by some people.