Catch them year-round in Virginias, often perched on tall vantage points or circling overhead. You’ve probably seen several Red-tailed hawks before, as they’re one of the most common hawks in North America.

They often fight and try to steal food from one another, though sometimes they do pair-up to eliminate a common enemy.

Red-shouldered hawks and crows don’t exactly get along. The translucent crescents near their wingtips are a great way to identify them. In the spring they’re often spotted circling over their nesting area. These year-round hawks of Virginia live in wet forests - often along streams and creeks. Red-shouldered hawk | image by Susan Young via Flickr Another defining characteristic is their translucent crescents near their wingtips that are visible during flight. Their colorful plumage makes these hawks fairly easy to identify. Like their name implies, Red-shouldered hawks feature light, reddish barring on their pale undersides as well as white banding on their tails. Northern goshawks are known to attack people that get a little too close to their nests. Their fierce nature extends to humans as well. They possess an accipiter form, with short, broad wings, and a long tail that helps them make quick maneuvers when chasing after their main prey small birds. Their coloration is mostly gray with white stripes above their red-orange eyes. They’re closely related to sharp-shinned and cooper’s hawks - except larger and more aggressive. Northern goshawk | image by Andrey Gulivanov via Flickr | CC BY 2.0 To make things more difficult, they’re only ever scarcely seen in Virginia - during winter after migration. Northern goshawks are more secretive than many other hawks, making them quite hard to find. Northern Goshawk photo by: Iosto Doneddu | CC 2.0 Though they used to avoid populated areas, these hawks are becoming more and more common in towns, suburbs, and other urban areas - preying on the many pigeons and doves that live there.ģ.

They’re found year-round in Virginia, most often on the edge of forests, but sometimes in backyards, too. Cooper’s hawks are incredible flyers, able to quickly navigate dense forests to chase after smaller birds. They’re about the size of a crow and have an accipiter shape with broad, rounded wings and a long tail. However, Cooper’s hawks are larger with slightly broader wings. Both birds even share the same flap-flap-glide flying style. The hawks will search for food elsewhere and the songbirds will eventually return.Ĭooper’s hawks are very similar in appearance to sharp-shinned hawks, making it difficult to differentiate between the two. If you notice them perched in your yard, remove your bird feeder and replace it after a few weeks. Watch out if you keep bird feeders in the yard, these guys are well-known for snatching up unsuspecting songbirds. They typically spend their time nesting in thick forests, occasionally coming out into open land to look for prey. It’s during migration that they travel southwards in large numbers, giving you a better chance of seeing them. The best time to catch a glimpse of these accipiter hawks is during the fall when they migrate. Non-breeding populations of sharp-shinned hawks are found during winter throughout the majority of Virginia, with a small, resident population year-round in the southwestern portion of the state, particularly in areas like the Allegheny and Blue Ridge Mountains. There are 7 types of Hawks in Virginia sharp-shinned hawks, Cooper’s hawks, northern goshawks, red-shouldered hawks, red-tailed hawks, rough-legged hawks, and broad-winged hawks.įor a quick overview of each species such as the best times to look for each kind, keep reading below! 1. This usage reflects regional naming conventions and is not intended to overlook the taxonomic distinctions among these groups of birds of prey. The reason we refer to accipiters and buteos both as ‘hawks’ is simply in alignment with North American terminology. You can find both kinds of hawks in Virginia, and in this article we’re going to cover them all. Hawks are medium-sized to large birds of prey that generally belong to two categories - accipiters and buteos. There are at least 16 hawk species distributed throughout the United States and the rest of North America.

Red tailed hawk virginia