The red-tailed hawk (Buteo jamaicensis) is the most common hawk in the United States, with about three million breeding birds residing in North America today. They are also one of the largest North American birds: up to 24 inches long with a wingspan of nearly four feet. Their excellent eyesight helps them spot movement of mice from hundreds of feet in the air. And the rusty red tail of adult hawks makes them one of the easiest hawks to identify.
But these birds weren’t always thriving. They were often called hen-hawks, despite the fact that most of this bird’s diet is small mammals, and 200 years ago, people hunted and trapped them because of the carnage to poultry attributed to them. In Louisiana, they were also called Grand mangeur de poules, or “great eaters of chickens.”
In 1831, John James Audubon described how a farmer might react after a red-tailed hawk carried away one of his chickens:
The Red-tailed Hawk visits the farmhouses, to pay his regards to the poultry… the Hawk plunges upon any one of them, and sweeps it off to the nearest wood… the dying screams of which are heard by the farmer at the plough, who swears vengeance against the robber. He remembers that he has observed the Hawk’s nest in the woods, and full of anger at the recollection of the depredations which the plunderer has already committed, and at the anticipation of its many visits during the winter, leaves his work and his horses, strides to his house, and with an axe and a rifle in his hands proceeds towards the tree, where the hopes of the Red-tailed Hawk are snugly nestled among, the tall branches. . . . The farmer arrives, eyes the gigantic tree, but resolves that he shall not be overreached by a Hawk. He throws aside his hat, rolls up his sleeves, and applies himself to the work… The poor mother-bird, well aware of the result, sails sorrowfully over and around. She alights on the edge of the nest, and would urge her offspring to take flight. But the farmer has watched her motions. The axe is left sticking in the core of the tree, his rifle is raised to his shoulder in an instant, and the next moment the whizzing ball has pierced the heart of the Red-tailed Hawk, which falls unheeded to the earth. The farmer renews his work… the noble tree falls to the earth. The work of revenge is now accomplished: the farmer seizes the younglings, and carries them home, to be tormented by his children, until death terminates their brief career.
Not only did farmers have it out for hawks, but governments and hunting clubs offered bounties for these birds. Many were killed when they formed bottlenecks as they migrated through mountain ridges on their way to southern states.
One hundred years later, hunting had taken its toll on the red-tailed hawk, according to ornithologist Arthur Cleveland Bent:
The widespread prejudice against all hawks is exterminating this useful species… It will be a sad day indeed when we shall no longer see the great redtail sailing over the treetops on its broad expanse of wing and ruddy tail, or soaring upward in majestic circles until lost to sight in the ethereal blue, or a mere speck against the clouds.
Bent and others recognized and documented how helpful these birds were at catching rodent pests, which caused more damage to farmers’ crops than did the occasional loss of a small, young chicken.
It has been demonstrated by careful stomach examination that poultry and game birds do not constitute more than 10 percent of the food of this Hawk, and that all the other beneficial animals preyed upon, including snakes, will not increase this proportion to 15 percent. Thus, the balance in favor the Hawk is at least 85 percent, made up largely of various species of injurious rodents—a fact that every thoughtful farmer should remember.
In 1918, the Migratory Bird Treaty Act — which made it illegal to shoot hawks or destroy their nests or eggs — became law, and this gradually ended the persecution of red-tailed hawks and many other species of birds. Hawk populations recovered until another challenge arose.
After World War II, modern synthetic pesticides, such as DDT, became commonly used, not just by farmers, but also by public health agencies, forestry agencies, home gardeners, and the military to control everything from mosquitoes and roaches to cotton bollworms, gypsy moths and many other insects. Pesticides worked their way up the food chain and became concentrated in predators like hawks. Over time, scientists recognized that DDT was a probable human carcinogen and that it thinned bird eggshells, poisoned fish, and killed beneficial insects as well as harmful ones. The United States ended nearly all uses of DDT in 1972.
But today red-tailed hawks in our region once again face a new challenge: rodenticides. These hawks are incredible at rodent control. It has been estimated that one red-tailed hawk can eat several hundred or more rodents per year. In cities, where rats are abundant, people often put out rat poison, which is eagerly consumed by rats. However, eating poisoned rodents can also kill their predators, including red-tailed hawks.
Second-generation anticoagulant rodenticides, which prevent blood from clotting normally, are especially dangerous because they are highly potent, remain in body tissues for a long time and lead to uncontrolled internal bleeding. In one 2020 study, Dr. Maureen Murray of the Tufts Wildlife Clinic in North Grafton, Massachusetts, found anticoagulant rodenticides in the liver of every one of the 43 injured or sick birds brought to the clinic. Other studies show similar results.
Massachusetts lawmakers have considered legislation that would restrict the use of these rodenticides, but as of July 2026, it has not become law.
A stronger
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