Where and When to Find Buteos

There is a collection of birding jokes on the internet lately. It starts with "You know you're a birder if," and then proceeds with about 25 endings, most of which apply to me. One of them finishes the sentence with "you name your children 'buteo' and 'accipiter." That never occurred to me.

These words are Latin terms used in the scientific names given to certain families of hawks. Buteo is the general Latin word meaning 'hawk,' and from it comes the word 'buzzard,' which is commonly used in the English names of European hawks. In America buzzard is used as a slang term to indicate a vulture.

There are four species of hawks found in New England that share the special characteristics that make them buteos. One is by far the hawk most seen by the casual person who pays attention to such things. It is the 'buteo jamaicensis,' the red-tailed hawk. Although this hawk is resident throughout the entire North American continent, the island of Jamaica was used in its scientific name, because this was the place of origin of the first specimen described in the literature.

Buteos are soaring hawks, using their broad, long wings to great advantage to circle or glide effortlessly, using wind currents and thermals. They hunt occasionally on the wing, looking for their prey in open fields and descending slowly and quietly to seize it from above. However, most buteos hunt even more often from a perch, sitting quietly in a tree until a rabbit or rodent appears below.

You can see a perched red-tailed hawk most of the winter along the interstates and other highways where there are expanses of seldom mowed grasses. The fences and speeding cars keep down the number of competing predators, like coyotes, and the hawks can feast on the burgeoning population of small grass eating mammals. Often the birds are in a low tree and quite close to the pavement, so one is startled by this huge appearing hawk practically in the break down lane.

Huge though the red-tailed hawk may appear close up, it is not an eagle. Eagles do not eat these mammals and would not be found in such places. They eat almost

exclusively fish, which they catch in lazy, gliding flight from the very surface of a large body of water. The only place you might casually see an eagle is if it flies over as you cross a bridge on the Connecticut River.

Through the winter the red-tail hawk has waited quietly and alone at its favored perches in a hunting territory. Now they are moving around much more, and can be seen flying above the treetops or high in the sky, usually in pairs. It is time to court, refurbish the nest, and mate.

Some of those we see doing this are permanent residents, who stay on their nesting grounds all year long. Others are birds who will soon depart for Maine and the Maritimes, where deep snows always make finding food too difficult.

The red-shouldered hawk is another buteo that nests with us, but it is much rarer and usually departs New England entirely for the winter. The rough-legged hawk is rarer still and comes to us only in the winter from the very far north. The broad-winged hawk is a common woodland nesting buteo, but at this moment is starting its long trip through Central America and Mexico to reach us by the end of next month.

Don't be surprised if the tail of the red-tailed hawk does not appear red. Only the upper side of the tail is reddish, and in some lights can still be just dark even when you do see it well. The underside of the bird is mostly white, with most individuals sporting a band of heavy streaking on the mid-section. The head, back and upper wings are dark brown spotted with a few white streaks and patches. On a perched bird the folded wings hide the red tail entirely.

So don't try to get a good look as you are speeding along the highway. Just enjoy a brief glimpse of this graceful hunter as you keep your eyes on the road. You now know it is a red-tailed hawk.