Parks & Recreation

Meet the Red-Tailed Hawks at Wildwood Zoo

red hawk

We have two Red-Tailed Hawks at the zoo. One is named Jack and in June 2010 we added a female named Jill. They share their home with the rough-legged hawks at the zoo. You can tell them apart from the other hawks by their reddish colored tails. Jack enjoys perching higher in the exhibit and is usually spotted up on the high perches. Jill has more brown coloring on her head and neck.

Red-tailed hawks are a large hawk common to most of the United States. Red-tails have about a 4-foot wingspan and weigh between two and three pounds. Red-tailed hawks are “generalist” feeders. This means that they will eat almost anything they can catch. They will eat small and medium-sized birds, mammals, and rabbits.

Like most raptor species, red-tailed hawks display “sexual size dimorphism”. Sexual size dimorphism means that the female birds are larger than the males. There are several different theories as to why female raptors are bigger than males, but one single reason has yet to be identified.

Red-Tailed Hawk Range in North America

red hawk range

For more information, please visit Desert USA.