red-tailed hawk - Everything2.com : vimarsana.com

red-tailed hawk
Sat Nov 29 2014 at 13:50:16
Buteo jamaicensis, also colloquially called chickenhawk despite its preference for mammalian prey over domestic fowl, is the most widespread, populous, and versatile member of Falconiformes in the United States. The red-tail s range extends well into Canada and Alaska, Panama and the West Indies, and it succeeds similarly well in high and low altitude biomes, humid and arid biomes, urban zones and forests and open plains. Only the peregrine falcon can boast residence in more discrete types of habitat than the red-tail, and the peregrine certainly does not have the same population numbers or number of subspecies, colour morphs, and taxonomically significant variations. Peregrines also tend to follow a far more restricted diet, preying chiefly on pigeons and small waterfowl. If there is a rodent, rabbit, non-venomous reptile, road-killed raccoon, or complacent pigeon anywhere in the States, within a mile there is a red-tailed hawk who would be all too pleased to call it lunch. Adaptive not only in its climate tolerance and diet, but also in its hunting techniques, red-tails vary from solitary perch and drop hunting to collaborative soar and drop techniques, especially in the Harris Hawk subspecies found most often in the American southwest.