There are four groups of hawks that we see in the Skiatook area: accipiters, buteos, falcons and kites.
Accipiter is the Latin name for hawk. They are referred to as “bird hawks” because their prey is mainly birds. They have long tails and short, rounded wings, which enable them to fly through wooded areas in pursuit of birds. They are also called woodland hawks.
Our resident accipiter is the Cooper’s hawk.
In winter we will also see sharp-shinned hawks, a smaller lookalike cousin of the Cooper’s hawk. We see both at our place.
Northern Harrier Hawk
Also in the accipiter family is the northern harrier. We see it only in winter. In summer it breeds further north. Harriers are slender, medium-sized hawks with long, broad wings and long tails. They have a distinctive white patch on the rump. Harriers have flat, owl-like faces and they hunt using both vision and hearing. Males are gray, black and white, females brown. While hunting, they fly low over the ground and prefer open areas like prairies and marshes. The wings are held in a “V”. Their prey is mainly rodents, such as mice, voles and cotton rats. Except for harriers, the hawks described here nest in trees. Harriers make their nests on the ground, usually in dense vegetation.
Buzzard Hawks
Buteos are the “buzzard hawks” or soaring hawks. Buteo is the Latin name for buzzard. They are large, heavy-bodied hawks with broad wings and wide, rounded tails. Their diet includes rodents, rabbits, reptiles and large insects like grasshoppers. These are the hawks we see soaring high overhead in the summertime. The two that are resident here year-round in our area are the red-tailed hawk and the red-shouldered hawk.
Red-Tailed Hawks
Red-tailed hawks prefer open country and in winter we see them perched on utility lines and poles along roadways.
Red-Shouldered Hawk
The red-shouldered hawk is seen more often in wooded areas. During migration, and in winter, we are likely to see several other buteos, including Swainson’s hawk, ferruginous hawk, broad-winged hawk and rough-legged hawk. We’ve seen all four at our place.
Falcon Hawks
Falcons are the third group. Falcon is Latin for sickle, a reference to its talons and wings. They are streamlined birds of prey and have long pointed wings and long tails. They hunt from the air and their prey includes birds, rodents and insects.
The American kestrel is the only falcon we have year-round. During winter we may see merlins, peregrine falcons and prairie falcons. We’ve seen all three here.
The peregrine is an amazing bird of prey. It hunts from the sky and dives down on its prey. In a power dive, it pumps its wings to gain speed, then folds them just before it strikes, with its talons closed like a fist. The impact breaks the neck of its prey. Peregrines will reach speeds of over 200 miles per hour in a dive; 240 mph has been recorded! They are the fastest animals on earth.
Kite Hawks
The final group is kites. These are medium-sized hawks with long, narrow wings and long tails. They look like falcons. When hunting, though, kites tend to soar and hover. The kite we see in our area is the Mississippi kite, but only in the summertime. They are long-distance migrants and spend the winter in South America. We regularly see them flying over our place and keep hoping a pair will nest, but so far, they haven’t. We once saw a white-tailed kite flying over the east meadow. We saw it first on April 21, 2005. It stayed around for several days, and members of the Tulsa Audubon Society were able to come out and confirm the sighting. The hawk is usually found along the Texas coast.
