Red-Shouldered Hawk

Buteo lineatus

The Red-Shouldered Hawk is largely a resident of the eastern USA. However, there is a separate population that lives year round in California’s Coast Range and into Baja California.

American Crows and Red-Shouldered Hawks are often adversaries; harassing one another and attempting to steal food. However, these two species will join forces and attack a common enemy, such as the Great Horned Owl, and drive it from their territory.

When I’m at my southern California home, I enjoy the company of these hawks. It’s a tossup whether the Cooper’s Hawk or the Red-Shouldered are most common there, but the very vocal Red-Shouldered Hawk is more noticeable because they seldom shut up. I suspect both nest either on my property, or in nearby trees just off my property.

Today, science recognises five subspecies of Red-Shouldered Hawk:

B. l. lineatus lives in eastern and the midwestern USA and southeastern Canada.
B. l. texanus lives in eastern Texas.
B. l. alleni lives in North Carolina, Tennessee, Arkansas, and Oklahoma south to Louisiana, eastern Texas, and northern Florida.
B. l. extimus lives in southern Florida.
B. l. elegans lives in California and southern Oregon west of the Cascade mountains, and northwestern Mexico.