Rough-legged Hawk

Small banner

Rough-legged Hawk

	Scientific name: Buteo lagopus
	Family name: Accipitridae
	Are they endangered? No, it is not endangered worldwide. (ICUN Redlist: Least concern.)
	What are their past/present problems? Man is the main enemy of Rough-legged Hawks. We are finding oil in the arctic area and some of the Rough-legged Hawk’s habitat is lost when they start drilling and building pipelines to get the oil out. Sometimes hunters are trapping or shooting these birds. In some areas, farmers are selling their land for housing developments. This takes away hawk habitats, too.
	What do they look like? There are light and dark kinds of Rough-legged hawks. The light kind has white heads and bellies and the dark kind have brown heads and bellies.

The dark kind are mostly dark brown all over with a tail that has gray and white tail. The light kind [or light morph] has a lot of brown and white streaks on its body and a tail that is white with a dark stripe on it.

How big are they? They are 18-24 inches long. If you stretched them out, their wings would be about 4 feet wide.

How many eggs do they lay? The female lays 5 to 7 white eggs when they get enough food. They lay less eggs when they are having problems finding enough food. The eggs hatch in about a month.

How long do the fledglings stay in the nest? They like to make their nests in places that are hard for humans to reach, like high cliffs. The nests are made out of sticks and they stay in the same nest for a few years. The birds might have a second nest to use, too. The young birds (fledglings) stay in the nest for about 40 days.

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

What do they eat? Rough-legged Hawks really like to eat rodents (MICE!) but they will eat insects, too.

Where do they live? They are in Europe, Asia, and the United States.

What kind of place do they like to live in? They like wetlands, marshes, and open areas. They like tundra and arctic areas.

Interesting facts:

	Many raptors hunt from high places, swooping down on their prey. The Rough-legged Hawk likes to stand on dirt piles or even stand on the ground to catch its prey. They will fly and hunt, too.
	Rough-legged Hawks will fly down--feet first--to grab prey.
	They have very small feet and beaks. This helps them to stay warm in the really cold north.
	This bird may be called a rough-legged buzzard.
	The feathers on their legs help their legs stay warm.

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 lagopus. 5 Oct. 2007. < http://www.iucnredlist.org/search/details.php/49444/all>.

Chitwood, Phillip. “Re: Picture Donation.” E-mail to Club Web. 11 Feb. 2008.

Raptor bites: Rough-legged hawk. 5 Oct. 2007. <http://hawkmountain.org/media/speciesinfo.pdf>.

Rough-legged hawk. 5 Oct. 2007. <http://www.perigrinefund.org/Explore_Raptors/hawks/ruffleg.html>.

Rough-legged hawk. 11 Dec. 2007. <http://www.birdsofprey.blm.gov/nat-res/roughleg.htm>.

Vanner, Michael. Field guide to the birds of North America. United Kingdom: Parragon, 2006.

Our site is best viewed with: 1024x768 screen resolution, Acrobat Reader 7+,
Adobe Flash Player 9, and Windows Media Player.

Links

Friends with feathers hawk facts

Rough-legged Hawk info

Visit to Hawk Mountain

Hawk quiz

Trivia game

Citations

Site Map

Team

About

Mouse Mail

Dictionary