The most common hawk of all. They are great powerful hawks that come in many varieties and morph colors. There are 5 races of the red-tailed: the Western (B.J. Calurus), Eastern (B.J. Borealis), Harlans'(B.J. Harlani), the Fuertes (B.J. Fuertesi) and the Krider's (B.J. Krederi). There are basicaly 3 morphs of these birds, the dark morph, rufous morph and the light morph, as well as a few albinos and partial albinos. The "Harlan's" is very dark and almost deprived of red pigment. The Harlan's in light morph is very striking with extreme contrast of color going to dark black-brown to white. The "rufous" morph which as its name imply and very reddish in tone. The "fuertes" have almost no markings on the chess and is more of uniform tone. To complicate identification, the immature birds have different coloration and also interbreed with other breeds and color morph, so it is not usual to see mixed birds.

These birds eat small mammals, waterfowl, snakes and amphibians. They can take fairly large prey and I have seen them kill and eat american coot and other waterfowl. My favorites are the Krider's in light morph and the Harlan's in light morph. Very common in California, it is even permitted to capture them for falconry if one has a permit to do so. They are usualy not too wary of humans and especialy at Klamath Basin we could get to 20 feet of them without too much problem. In California central valley, we can usualy get as close as the hight of an utility post before they fly to the next one. Shooting from a car is usualy a better way to get to them. Most bird mortality occur in the first year or so.