BirdBrain Academy

Hawks and Eagles · Accipitridae

Red-tailed Hawk sounds

Buteo jamaicensis

The Red-tailed Hawk is a common North American raptor, breeding from Alaska and Canada south to Panama and the West Indies.

Learn bird sounds freeMore Red-tailed Hawk recordings
Red-tailed Hawk
Photo: Becky Matsubara from El Sobrante, California, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Listen to the Red-tailed Hawk

Each recording below is a short excerpt with its spectrogram, a picture of the sound. Time runs left to right and higher pitches sit higher up. Play each one, then look for the same shape in the next. Different recordings of the same bird help you learn the bird, not one clip.

Call · recording 1 Spectrogram of a Red-tailed Hawk call: time runs left to right and pitch rises upward

Recorded by Jonas Katona, Sand Canyon, Santa Clarita, Los Angeles County, California, 2021-02-15. XC625524 on xeno-canto, CC BY-SA 4.0. Five-second excerpt.

Call · recording 2 Spectrogram of a Red-tailed Hawk call: time runs left to right and pitch rises upward

Recorded by Jonathon Jongsma, Dordt College Prairie, Sioux, Iowa, 2011-02-12. XC71575 on xeno-canto, CC BY-SA 3.0. Five-second excerpt.

What to listen for

The Red-tailed Hawk gives a two- to three-second hoarse, rasping scream that begins high and slurs downward, often likened to a steam whistle. It is most forceful in annoyance or anger, especially near predators or rival hawks.

Many listeners write its call as “kree-eee-ar”. Treat a written sound as a memory aid; individual birds and regions vary.

What it looks like

The Red-tailed Hawk is broad, blocky, and large for a Buteo, with females up to 25% larger than males. Most show a whitish underbelly with a dark belly band, thick wings, and the namesake brick-red tail above and buff-orange below.

Where to find it

It ranges widely across the Americas, favoring mixed forest and field with high bluffs or trees for perches, and also using deserts, grasslands, woodlands, farms, cities, mountains, and coasts. In flight it soars with little flapping, hunts from perches or on the wing, and may even hunt in pairs.

BirdBrain regions that include this bird

  • Alaska
  • California
  • Caribbean
  • Central America
  • Eastern Canada
  • Florida
  • Great Lakes
  • Mexico
  • Mid-Atlantic
  • New England
  • Northwest
  • Plains
  • Polynesia
  • Rocky Mountains
  • Southeast
  • Southwest
  • Texas
  • Western Canada

Did you know?

  • Its fierce scream is often used as a generic raptor sound effect in television and other media.
  • The famous urban hawk Pale Male successfully nested and raised young in crowded Manhattan.
  • Red-tailed hawks have been observed hunting in pairs to flush and capture tree squirrels.

Learn the Red-tailed Hawk by ear

BirdBrain Academy teaches bird sounds with side-by-side listening and quizzes that use different recordings, so you learn the bird rather than one clip. Start with six free lessons, no signup needed. On your phone, Sound ID can name the birds singing around you.

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Related birds

Species notes are adapted from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0, and checked for BirdBrain. Recordings come from xeno-canto under the licenses shown with each one. Photo: Becky Matsubara from El Sobrante, California, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons. Identification guidance is educational; birds vary, so confirm unusual sightings with local experts or eBird.