Red-tailed Hawk facts 🦅 Chickenhawk 🦅 Red-tail 🦅 breeds throughout most of North America

Описание: #amazinganimals facts for kids
The red-tailed hawk is a bird of prey that breeds throughout most of North America, from the interior of Alaska and northern Canada to as far south as Panama and the West Indies. The red-tailed hawk is one of three species colloquially known in the United States as the "chickenhawk", though it rarely preys on standard-sized chickens. The bird is sometimes also referred to as the red-tail. They can acclimate to all the biomes within their range, occurring on the edges of non-ideal habitats such as dense forests and sandy deserts. It occupies a wide range of habitats and altitudes including deserts, grasslands, coniferous and deciduous forests, agricultural fields and urban areas. Its latitudinal limits fall around the tree line in the Arctic and the species is absent from the high Arctic. It is legally protected in Canada, Mexico, and the United States by the Migratory Bird Treaty Act.
The red-tailed hawk is one of the largest members of the genus Buteo. This species displays sexual dimorphism in size.
The diet of red-tailed hawks is highly variable and reflects their status as opportunistic generalists, but in North America, it is most often a predator of small mammals such as rodents. Prey that is terrestrial and diurnal is preferred so types such as ground squirrels are preferential where they naturally occur. Large numbers of birds and reptiles can occur in the diet in several areas and can even be the primary foods. Red-tailed hawks may survive on islands absent of native mammals on diets variously including invertebrates such as crabs, or lizards and birds. Like many Buteo, they hunt from a perch most often but can vary their hunting techniques where prey and habitat demand it. Because they are so common and easily trained as capable hunters, the majority of hawks captured for falconry in the United States are red-tails. Falconers are permitted to take only passage hawks so as to not affect the breeding population. Passage red-tailed hawks are also preferred by falconers because these younger birds have not yet developed the adult behaviors which would make them more difficult to train.
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