Illustration © David Allen Sibley.
Learn more about these drawings.
Text © Kenn Kaufman, adapted from
Lives of North American Birds
Photo: Rick & Nora Bowers/Vireo
Ferruginous Hawk
Buteo regalis
| Conservation status | Threatened. Has declined seriously over most of its range; current population may be fewer than 4,000 pairs. Causes of decline include shooting, loss of habitat. |
|---|---|
| Family | Hawks and Eagles |
| Habitat | Plains, prairies. Found at all seasons in very open and dry country. Inhabits dry grassland, sagebrush plains, saltbush and greasewood flats, rangeland, desert. In winter, also in agricultural country, including over plowed fields. |
Photo Gallery
Feeding Behavior
Hunts by watching for prey while soaring high, flying low, or from a raised perch. Sometimes waits on ground near active burrow of pocket gopher, then catches the rodent as it comes to surface.
Eggs
2-4, sometimes up to 6 or more. Pale bluish-white fading to white, usually marked with brown. Incubation is by both sexes but female does more, and male brings food to her. Incubation period 32-33 days. Young: Female remains with young at first; male brings food, female feeds it to young. After about 3 weeks, both parents hunt. Age of young at first flight about 40-50 days.
Young
Female remains with young at first; male brings food, female feeds it to young. After about 3 weeks, both parents hunt. Age of young at first flight about 40-50 days.
Diet
Mostly small to medium-sized mammals. Feeds on most readily available small prey, such as young jackrabbits, ground squirrels, pocket gophers, kangaroo rats; also cottontails, mice, others. Also eats birds, snakes, large insects.
Nesting
Pairs may circle high above nesting territory, calling. Nest site is usually in top of tree, 20-50' above ground, but can be as low as 6' (available trees may be very short). Sometimes nests on cliff or on ground. Nest is bulky structure of sticks and debris, lined with finer materials, including cow dung. Historically, some nests were built of bison bones and lined with bison dung. Nest may be reused and added to annually until it becomes huge.
How climate change could affect this bird's range
In the broadest and most detailed study of its kind, Audubon scientists have used hundreds of thousands of citizen-science observations and sophisticated climate models to predict how birds in the U.S. and Canada will react to climate change.
Read more: climate.audubon.org
Each map is a visual guide to where a particular bird species may find the climate conditions it needs to survive in the future. We call this the bird’s “climatic range.”
The colors indicate the season in which the bird may find suitable conditions— blue for winter, yellow for summer (breeding), and green for where they overlap (indicating their presence year-round).
The darker the shaded area, the more likely it is the bird species will find suitable climate conditions to survive there.
The outline of the approximate current range for each season remains fixed in each frame, allowing you to compare how the range will expand, contract, or shift in the future.
The first frame of the animation shows where the bird can find a suitable climate today (based on data from 2000). The next three frames predict where this bird’s suitable climate may shift in the future—one frame each for 2020, 2050, and 2080.
You can play or pause the animation with the orange button in the lower left, or select an individual frame to study by clicking on its year.
Ferruginous Hawk In the News More News
Audubon Mural Project
Ferruginous Hawk by Ben Angotti
Location: GNC, 3551 Broadway, New York, NY 10031
