Hawks are among the easiest birds of prey to notice and some of the hardest to identify correctly. A broad-winged bird circling over a field may be a Red-tailed Hawk, a Swainson’s Hawk, a Ferruginous Hawk, or a Rough-legged Hawk, depending on its shape, season, and location. A small woodland hawk near a bird feeder is more likely to be a Sharp-shinned Hawk or Cooper’s Hawk.
“Hawk” is a common-name grouping rather than one precise taxonomic category. This list follows the broad North American birding use of the word and includes true hawks, the Northern Harrier, and two kites in the Accipitridae family. The descriptions focus on identification, habitat, and practical places to look—not on approaching, handling, or keeping these wild raptors as pets.
18 types of hawks and where to find them
Use habitat and flight style as well as plumage when identifying a hawk. Color can change with age, sex, lighting, molt, and dark or light color morphs, while behavior and wing shape are often more dependable clues.
1. Sharp-shinned Hawk (Accipiter striatus)
The Sharp-shinned Hawk is the smallest hawk commonly seen in Canada and the United States. It has short, rounded wings and a very long tail, a combination that lets it maneuver quickly through trees.
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Look for it in dense forests during the breeding season and around forest edges, suburbs, and bird feeders during migration and winter. Established hawkwatch sites can be especially productive in fall. Its typical flight is a quick series of wingbeats followed by a glide before it vanishes into cover.
Identification trap: A Sharp-shinned Hawk can resemble a Cooper’s Hawk. The Sharp-shinned usually has a smaller head and a squarer tail tip; the Cooper’s Hawk has a larger, more projecting head and a more rounded tail.
2. Cooper’s Hawk (Astur cooperii)
Cooper’s Hawks are medium-sized woodland hunters with broad, rounded wings and a long, rounded tail. Adults have blue-gray upperparts and reddish barring below.
Search mature trees along forest edges, in parks, leafy suburbs, and quiet neighborhoods. They also appear at ridge-top hawkwatches during migration. The characteristic flight is often described as flap-flap-glide.
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3. American Goshawk (Accipiter atricapillus)
The American Goshawk is a large, powerful forest accipiter. It has broad wings, a long tail, and a prominent pale eyebrow, particularly as an adult.
Its range includes mature northern and mountainous forests in Canada, Alaska, the northern United States, and western mountain ranges. Rather than soaring over open fields, it is more likely to be seen moving rapidly through dense forest.
Identification trap: A large forest hawk is not automatically a Cooper’s Hawk. The American Goshawk is substantially larger, with a stronger white eyebrow and a shorter-looking tail.
4. Northern Harrier (Circus hudsonius)
The Northern Harrier is a slim, long-tailed hawk that flies low over vegetation with its wings held in a shallow V. Both sexes have a conspicuous white patch at the base of the tail. Adult males are gray, while females are brown.
Look for it over marshes, grasslands, prairies, large fields, and coastal wetlands, especially from fall through spring. Its low, slow, coursing flight is the best clue. The species has an owl-like facial disk that helps it detect prey by sound as well as sight.
5. Broad-winged Hawk (Buteo platypterus)
The Broad-winged Hawk is a compact forest hawk with broad wings and a boldly banded black-and-white tail. It breeds in eastern and northern forests, but migration is often the easiest time to find it.
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During migration, Broad-winged Hawks gather in large kettles that can contain thousands of birds. Productive viewing locations include Hawk Ridge in Minnesota, Hawk Mountain in Pennsylvania, the Great Lakes, southern Texas, and the Gulf Coast of Mexico.
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6. Red-shouldered Hawk (Buteo lineatus)
Adult Red-shouldered Hawks have reddish barring below, reddish shoulders, and strongly banded tails. In flight, pale translucent crescents near the wingtips may be visible.
They favor tall, wet forests, swamp woods, stream corridors, river parks, and wooded neighborhoods. Listen near streams, ponds, and bottomland forests for the species’ repeated, plaintive whistle.
Although often associated with rural habitat, Red-shouldered Hawks also live in urban and suburban areas where mature trees and water remain.
7. Red-tailed Hawk (Buteo jamaicensis)
The Red-tailed Hawk is a large, broad-winged species with a short tail. Adults usually have a reddish-brown tail, but juveniles have brown, banded tails, so a missing red tail does not rule out this species.
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It is widespread across North America and commonly perches on fenceposts, telephone poles, and other elevated points along roadsides, fields, pastures, open country, and woodland edges. Many areas have more Red-tailed Hawks in winter when northern birds join resident birds.
The dramatic hawk scream commonly used in films is usually a Red-tailed Hawk call, even when the onscreen bird is another raptor.
8. Swainson’s Hawk (Buteo swainsoni)
Swainson’s Hawks are long-winged, open-country hawks often seen soaring with their wings held in a shallow V. Their plumage varies considerably, including light and dark morphs.
During summer, search Great Plains and western grasslands, especially west of the Mississippi River. Individual birds often perch on utility poles, fenceposts, irrigation equipment, and isolated trees.
Large flocks are possible during April and September migration. Hazel Bazemore Park near Corpus Christi, Texas, is a notable viewing site. Most Swainson’s Hawks travel to Argentina for winter.
9. Ferruginous Hawk (Buteo regalis)
The Ferruginous Hawk is the largest North American hawk. The common light morph has white underparts, rusty shoulders and legs, long wings, and a large head. Dark morphs are much darker overall.
Find it in open western prairies, sagebrush country, deserts, agricultural plains, and areas with prairie-dog or ground-squirrel colonies. A very pale, large hawk flying with its wings in a slight V is a promising candidate.
Its legs are feathered all the way to the toes. Do not label every large, pale western hawk a Ferruginous Hawk: compared with a Red-tailed Hawk, it has relatively long, narrower, more pointed wings.
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The Rough-legged Hawk breeds on Arctic tundra and is primarily a winter visitor in southern Canada and the United States. It occurs in both light and dark morphs and often shows a dark belly patch plus dark markings in the tail and underwings.
Search open fields, marshes, pastures, prairies, and roadside country during winter. It may hover into the wind and perch on fenceposts, utility poles, the ground, or surprisingly thin treetops. In the lower 48 states, winter is the dependable season for finding one.
11. Harris’s Hawk (Parabuteo unicinctus)
Harris’s Hawks are dark brown with chestnut-red shoulders and thighs, white tail markings, long yellow legs, and yellow facial skin. They occur in arid scrub, desert grasslands, thorn forests, mesquite, and other open country in the American Southwest, particularly Texas, New Mexico, and Arizona.
They often perch in groups on conspicuous natural or human-made structures. Harris’s Hawks are unusually social for North American raptors, with family groups cooperating while hunting.
A group of Harris’s Hawks is not necessarily a migrating kettle. These birds may simply be gathered as a family hunting group.
12. White-tailed Hawk (Geranoaetus albicaudatus)
The White-tailed Hawk has broad wings and a striking white tail crossed by a dark band. Adults are often gray, black, and white, while juveniles are browner.
In the United States, this is primarily a south Texas bird. Look in native prairie and other open grasslands of southern and southeastern Texas. It is scarcer in intensively farmed land and ordinary pastures than its broad range name might suggest.
It may hang motionless in the wind or perch on utility poles, shrubs, and small trees.
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Adult Gray Hawks are pale gray with finely barred underparts and a strongly banded black-and-white tail. Juveniles are browner and more heavily marked.
In the United States, search southern Arizona and Texas, particularly along streamside woodlands, cottonwoods, willows, mesquite, thorn scrub, and forest edges. In Arizona, riparian corridors are more promising than dry, open desert because the species favors mesquite woodland near cottonwood- and willow-lined streams.
14. Zone-tailed Hawk (Buteo albonotatus)
The Zone-tailed Hawk is a dark, slim hawk with pale bands across the flight feathers and a bold white band in the tail. It occurs in arid foothills, mesas, cliffs, canyons, and wooded stream corridors in southern Arizona, New Mexico, California, and Texas. Spring and summer offer the best chances in the United States.
Its flight can imitate a Turkey Vulture: the wings are held slightly raised and the bird rocks from side to side. A Zone-tailed Hawk has a feathered head, a more hawk-like tail, and a strong white tail band, while a Turkey Vulture has a bare head.
15. Common Black Hawk (Buteogallus anthracinus)
The Common Black Hawk is a sooty-black hawk with very broad wings, a short tail, yellow legs, and a broad white tail band. Juveniles are streaky brown.
In the United States, look along remote wooded streams and canyon bottoms in Arizona, New Mexico, and Texas. It is much more common farther south in Mexico and Central America. The species is closely associated with water, including river corridors, marshes, swamps, and mangroves.
A bird perched over a river or soaring above a canyon on a warm morning is worth a closer look.
16. Short-tailed Hawk (Buteo brachyurus)
The Short-tailed Hawk is a compact buteo with light and dark morphs. Dark birds can resemble vultures when soaring, while light birds show neat white underparts.
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One free scan finds every outdated or missing driver and matches the right update for your exact hardware.Free scan · exact hardware matchIn the United States, it is found mainly in subtropical woodlands and forest edges in Florida, especially the southern peninsula, the Everglades, and the Florida Keys. The Florida Keys Hawkwatch at Curry Hammock State Park is a useful place to look during autumn migration.
It is far less common than a Red-tailed or Cooper’s Hawk.
17. Mississippi Kite (Ictinia mississippiensis)
The Mississippi Kite is technically a kite rather than a typical buteo or accipiter, but it is regularly included in North American hawk guides. It is a slender gray raptor with long, pointed wings and a dark tail. Juveniles are streaky and brown.
During summer, find it in the Southeast and southern Great Plains, especially Texas and Oklahoma. It uses bottomland forests, shelterbelts, city parks, golf courses, and athletic fields.
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Mississippi Kites spend much of the day in the air catching insects, including dragonflies, on the wing. After breeding, they migrate to central South America.
Give nest trees plenty of space. Adults can become defensive around their nests.
18. Swallow-tailed Kite (Elanoides forficatus)
The Swallow-tailed Kite is a black-and-white raptor with long, pointed wings and a deeply forked tail. Its effortless flight, with barely a wingbeat, makes it one of the most distinctive hawk-like birds in the United States.
Look above forested wetlands, river bottoms, swamps, and wooded areas in Florida, coastal Georgia, South Carolina, Louisiana, and parts of Texas. It may take insects, frogs, lizards, snakes, and other small prey while maneuvering through the air.
At a distance, its pointed wings and graceful gliding style can cause confusion with a gull or large falcon. The deeply forked tail is the key clue.
Independent reader supportYour contribution helps us test, update, and keep practical guides available for everyone.How to find a hawk near you
- Go to eBird.org.
- Select Explore.
- Select Species Maps.
- Search for the species you want to see.
- For a species-specific distribution view, open its Species Profile and select Large Map in the upper-right corner of the range map.
- Compare the broad range with recent local reports. A range map shows where a species may occur; it does not guarantee that a bird is present on a particular day.
The eBird mobile app can also show recent reports and birds reported near your location. For the best chance of success, match the habitat to the species: forest hawks are unlikely over treeless prairie, while a grassland specialist is unlikely to be sitting deep in a mature woodland.
Hawk identification mistakes to avoid
- Do not use color alone. Age, sex, lighting, molt, and dark or light morphs can change a bird’s appearance.
- Do not expect every Red-tailed Hawk to have a red tail. Juveniles have brown, banded tails.
- Check large black birds carefully. Turkey Vultures are commonly confused with Zone-tailed Hawks, especially when both are soaring.
- Remember that “hawk” is not a precise scientific category. Harriers and kites are accipitrids, but their body structure and behavior differ from classic buteos.
- Do not assume a bird feeder guarantees a hawk sighting. Sharp-shinned and Cooper’s Hawks may hunt near feeders, while other species specialize in fields, wetlands, forests, deserts, or migration corridors.
- Keep your distance from nests. Do not approach breeding raptors or use playback near them. Nesting Mississippi Kites, among others, may become highly defensive.
FAQ
What is the most common hawk to see in North America?
The Red-tailed Hawk is one of the most widespread and frequently encountered hawks in North America. It is especially easy to find along roadsides, fields, pastures, woodland edges, and utility poles.
What is the smallest hawk in this list?
The Sharp-shinned Hawk is the smallest hawk commonly seen in Canada and the United States. Its short, rounded wings and very long tail help it maneuver through dense cover.
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How can I tell a Cooper’s Hawk from a Sharp-shinned Hawk?
A Cooper’s Hawk is larger and usually has a larger, more projecting head and a rounded tail. A Sharp-shinned Hawk has a smaller head and a squarer-looking tail tip. Size can be difficult to judge, so compare head shape, tail shape, and flight behavior together.
The Bottom Line
The best way to find a hawk is to combine three clues: habitat, season, and flight style. Check mature woods for accipiters, open fields for buteos, wetlands for harriers and kites, and migration lookouts for concentrated movement. Use recent eBird reports to narrow the search, then observe with binoculars from a respectful distance.
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