Tuesday, November 24, 2009

Red Shouldered Hawk Facts


Yesterday, I was playing on the playground, and we saw two red shouldered hawks. They were soaring. And, we're not sure that they're red shouldered hawks, but we think they are because we heard the call. We knew the call because blue jays copy it and we've been hearing blue jays doing it, and we just knew the call. Here it is again.

Facts we learned while making this post:
5 day old red shouldered hawks can shoot their feces (which is their poop) over their nest. When you see a lot of bird poop on the ground, you know that you're close to an active nest.

They eat small mammals, reptiles, amphibians, birds and crayfish. They catch them by running or hopping after them on the ground or they drop on a prey from a perch high in a tree.

The female puts her nest high in the tree. She lays 2 to 5 eggs a year and sits on them for 33 days.

Here is a picture we found on the internet.

3 comments:

  1. Wow, Arden - red-shouldered hawks are really impressive and big birds! Are they common in Michigan?

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  2. Dear Jana,
    Red Shouldered are NOT very common in Michigan. We learned that they are the state listed threatened species list. So, now, we don't think those were red shouldered hawks that we saw. They were probably some kind of hawk, or bird of prey, because they were circling, but we're not sure.
    Love,
    Arden

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  3. i just seen one today...ravens were chasing ing from it's roosing place this was like 2 1/2 hours ago i saw it very clear and wondered if it was a eagle or hawk so i done a search it's just like this red shoulder hawk...forreal, I keep seing it in this area from Loy Norrix school all the way down to the stockbridge area.
    Selenthia

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