Help identifying the hawk species of Marietta, Georgia including: Red-shouldered, Red-tail, Cooper’s and Broad-winged hawks
I’ve recently had neighbors, co-workers and family members tell me they saw either eagles or falcons in their yard and then they showed me a photo of a cooper’s hawk, red shouldered hawk, broad winged hawk, or a red tailed hawk. Now to be completely honest with you, I’m not a formally educated ornithologist. I’m just a passionate birder that spent a lot of time in the woods growing up with a camera, pencil and paper, watching and sketching the local wildlife. While I never saw an eagle locally, I have seen a few at Lake Allatoona nearby and even Lake Acworth. I’ve seen them at Lake Oconee and at 2 different lakes in Rome Ga. We have also had Ospreys (Also known as fish hawks) spotted in our neighborhood lake by several neighbors. I’ve only had the pleasure of seeing a small falcon (American Kestrel) once in John’s Creek Ga. With that being said I’ve seen hundreds, if not thousands of hawks in Georgia in my lifetime. They are typically either; Red-shouldered Hawk, Red-tailed Hawk, Cooper’s Hawk or the Broad-winged Hawk. I may not have a photo of an adult and a juvenile for each of the species to help you but I’ll certainly dig through my archives to help you identify them as well as I possibly can. You can even send us photos and we’ll try to help identify them with you.
Red-shouldered Hawk
We captured one short video in Winter of the Red-shouldered hawk looking around and then calling to it’s mate from high up in a tree in our yard. See the video here on YouTube. Similar to the details on the red-tailed hawk below, I’ve included a couple of links to Audubon Society’s website as well as Cornell’s “All about birds” so you can learn more about these beautiful birds!
Red-tailed Hawk
The next in our list in this blog "Identifying the Hawk Species of Marietta, Georgia" We have captured a couple of short videos on YouTube, as well as the images below for your viewing pleasure. Video 1 and Video 2. Red-tailed hawks are the largest hawks in North America. They can be found perched high up in tree tops (top-left image below) or soaring with their lighter underside visible with reddish tail feathers backlit by sunlight. They primarily hunt rodents including chipmunks, squirrels or rabbits, but also can be found eating snakes, lizards or even roadkill in the winter months if hunting is slow for them. They have a high pitched scream of a whistle that often will cause nearby creatures to freeze. The hawk below (and in the videos we posted to YouTube) just finished eating a Gray Squirrel, so he was a bit lethargic and allowed me to take pictures from nearly every angle (for over an hour!).
If you’d like to view more photos, videos or learn more about the Red-tailed hawk, there is a great educational page on The Cornell Lab’s “About Birds” website. Additionally, the Audubon Society has a similar page with fantastic images and educational content.
Cooper’s Hawk
Cooper’s Hawks are pretty intense-looking birds. As adults their eyes turn Bright red and they appear to have a “hairline” of darker feathers which are met with lighter grey and orange mottled feathers on the neck and breast. They are very agile in flight and primarily hunt smaller birds. Young mourning doves, sparrows, starlings and even Blue-Jays can be meals (as well as plenty of other birds). Any backyard birder in the Southeast will likely have knowledge of these hunters. Older generations here in the South will sometimes even refer to these birds as “Blue Darters”, because the darker grey colorations on their backs, wings and head can appear bluish-gray in certain lighting.
If you’d like to read more about these awesome birds, here are some links for you: Cornell Lab’s “All About Birds” and additional information can be found here on the Audubon Society’s Field Guide.
