Red-tailed Hawk Photos

Photography by Terry Sohl

My Favorite: The ubiquitous Red-tailed Hawk. If you see a large hawk in eastern South Dakota and immediately called it a Red-tailed Hawk without knowing any better, a majority of the time you'd probably be right! It is amazing to see all the different plumage patterns on one species however. The bird below is a young first year bird, taken in November 2008 on the Fort Pierre National Grasslands.

Red-Tailed Hawk - Buteo jamaicensis


Red-tailed Hawk 1	Red-tailed Hawk 2	Red-tailed Hawk 3	Red-tailed Hawk 4
September 30th, 2006	September 30th, 2006	September 4th, 2004	September 1st, 2005
Kingsbury County, South Dakota	Kingsbury County, South Dakota	Lake Thompson, South Dakota	Near Yankton, South Dakota
Hawk perched on tree stump in middle of a lake	Closeup of a hawk spreading its wings from a metal fence post	Profile of a bird perched in a dead tree	Light Red-tailed Hawk on top of a telephone pole

Red-tailed Hawk 5	Red-tailed Hawk 6	Red-tailed Hawk 7	Red-tailed Hawk 8
July 4th, 2004	February 6th, 2007	September 30th, 2006	August 16th, 2004
Minnehaha County, South Dakota	Minnehaha County, South Dakota	Minnehaha County, South Dakota	Kingsbury County, South Dakota
Hawk in flight being harassed by a Red-winged Blackbird	Dark (Harlan's?) hawk perched in a tree	Bird in flight on a sunny blue sky day	Vertical of a typical eastern Red-tailed Hawk

Red-tailed Hawk 9	Red-tailed Hawk 10	Red-tailed Hawk 11	Red-tailed Hawk 12
October 17th, 2004	April 22nd, 2005	September 30th, 2006	October 22nd, 2006
Yankton County, South Dakota	Minnehaha County, South Dakota	Kingsbury County, South Dakota	Gavin's Point Dam, NE/SD border
Hawk perched on a cottonwood tree on a fall day	Typical (one of most common color morphs) Red-tailed Hawk in flight	Red-tailed Hawk taking flight from a stump	Adult hawk taking flight showing trademark red tail

Red-tailed Hawk 13	Red-tailed Hawk 14	Red-tailed Hawk 15	Red-tailed Hawk 16
September 30th, 2006	October 17th, 2004	September 30th, 2006	January 28th, 2007
Kingsbury County, South Dakota	Yankton County, South Dakota	Kingsbury County, South Dakota	Fort Pierre National Grasslands, South Dakota
Hawk perched on tree stump in middle of lake	Bird perched on dead tree branch in the sun	Hawk with likely hurt wing perched on a metal pole	Hawk taking flight from the top of a telephone pole

Red-tailed Hawk 17	Red-tailed Hawk 18	Red-tailed Hawk 19	Red-tailed Hawk 20
November 26th, 2008	November 26th, 2008	November 8th, 2009	November 8th, 2009
Fort Pierre National Grasslands, South Dakota	Fort Pierre National Grasslands, South Dakota	Minnehaha County, South Dakota	Minnehaha County, South Dakota
Immature Red-tailed Hawk in flight with blue sky as background	Immmature hawk on telephone pole, still showing banded tail	Bird standing in grassy ditch after unsuccessful hunting attempt	Bird standing in grassy ditch after unsuccessful hunting attempt

Red-tailed Hawk 21	Red-tailed Hawk 22	Red-tailed Hawk 23	Red-tailed Hawk 24
September 11th, 2010	July 23rd, 2011	July 23rd, 2011	March 18th, 2011
Kingsbury County, South Dakota	Harding County, South Dakota	Harding County, South Dakota	LaCreek National Wildlife Refuge, South Dakota
Hawk in flight showing upper plumage	Hawk perched on a hay bale on a sunny day	Hawk taking flight from a hay bale	Close up of head and shoulders of hawk

Red-tailed Hawk 25	Red-tailed Hawk 26	Red-tailed Hawk 27	Red-tailed Hawk 28
January 18th, 2015	May 2015	June 3rd, 2017	June 3rd, 2017
Lyman County, South Dakota	Outdoor Campus, Sioux Falls, South Dakota	Minnehaha County, South Dakota	Minnehaha County, South Dakota
"Krider's" Red-tailed Hawk showing very pale plumage	Immature hawk perched on a tree branch	Adult and young Red-tailed Hawk perched on a rock	Profile of hawk perched in the top of a spruce tree

Red-tailed Hawk 29	Red-tailed Hawk 30	Red-tailed Hawk 31	Red-tailed Hawk 32
April 2014	January 18th, 2015	November 1st, 2015	October 7th, 2017
Saguaro National Park, Arizona	Lyman County, South Dakota	Minnehaha County, South Dakota	Minnehaha County, South Dakota
Red-tailed Hawk perched on the top of a budding saguaro cactus	Dark-morph Red-tailed Hawk on top of a telephone pole	Hawk "mantling" it's prey while it feeds	Profile of immature hawk in flight on a sunny day

Red-tailed Hawk 33	Red-tailed Hawk 34	Red-tailed Hawk 35	Red-tailed Hawk 36
October 7th, 2017	July 7th, 2019	July 7th, 2019	July 7th, 2019
Minnehaha County, South Dakota	Minnehaha County, South Dakota	Minnehaha County, South Dakota	Minnehaha County, South Dakota
Light Red-tailed Hawk in flight on a blue sky day	Young light-morph bird perched on the ground	Young light-morph bird perched on the ground	Adult bird taking flight from top of a spruce tree

Red-tailed Hawk 37	Red-tailed Hawk 38	Red-tailed Hawk 39	Red-tailed Hawk 40
November 8th, 2019	November 17th, 2019	November 8th, 2019	September 13th, 2020
Near Yankton, South Dakota	Lyman County, South Dakota	Near Yankton, South Dakota	Minnehaha County, South Dakota
Adult red-tailed hawk perched in a tree	"Krider's" Red-tailed Hawk perched in top of an eastern red cedar tree	Immature bird perched on wooden post near dawn	Red-tailed Hawk taking flight in warm morning light