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The Hawks of Summer
Hunters of the Summer Sky The Hawks of Summer in Detail Hawk-Eyed Educator's Guide

As much as the heat and the dry, the wildflowers and the long, lazy days, the hawks of summer are a part of the Colorado landscape.

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Each spring there is a seasonal changing of the guard among Colorado hawks. Rough-legged and ferruginous hawks, who have spent winter here, depart for northern nesting grounds—roughlegs to the arctic, ferrugs to the northern Great Plains. Some ferruginous hawk pairs do nest in Colorado, mainly on the Eastern Plains.

As they are going out the door, Swainson’s hawks are coming in. These large hawks make a champion migration—as much as 7,000 miles—from their wintering grounds on the Argentine pampas to the Great Plains. Mississippi kites (a kind of hawk) move up into southeastern Colorado from their winter homes in Mexico and Latin America. Spring also sees the return of peregrine falcons, though some birds have stayed through winter in the vicinity of their eyries (nests).

Red-tailed, sharp-shinned and Cooper’s hawks, prairie falcons, goshawks, kestrels, and harriers inhabit our state year-round, moving within the state to more hospitable habitats depending on the season.

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The hawks of summer are neither hidden nor shy. The trick to seeing them is to pay attention when you’re driving, hiking, walking, or just gazing out your window. Prime your eyes to notice out-of-place shapes in trees or atop poles. Glance skyward and look for dark forms soaring overhead. Watch for birds in motion. A bird hovering over open ground, dropping forcefully toward the earth, or flying up to a perch is likely a raptor on the hunt. Look closely at birds perched on wires and poles, even small ones. The American kestrel, a robin-sized falcon, is proof that raptors can come in small packages. You have likely passed a kestrel a dozen times without realizing a pint-sized bird of prey sat watch above you.

As you pay attention to the birds around you, you’ll begin to cultivate a sense of who is who. Raptors have a characteristic shape—round head; short, hooked beak; upright posture. Noting these ID characteristics can help rule out some of the usual suspects. A large, dark perched bird initially looks like a hawk, but its long beak tells you it is a crow. A wide-winged soaring shape looks like a red-tailed hawk, but its tiny head is a giveaway. It’s a turkey vulture.

When you notice something that seems unusual, look closely. Raptors have many fascinating behaviors that are easy to see, particularly during spring courtship. No subtle head flicks or wing twitches here. Hawks rule the air and they use it as their stage. There’s a good chance you’ll witness a male harrier dancing in the sky in a series of steep, U-shaped dives. Nearby is the female he is trying to impress. Or you might see a pair of red-tailed hawks flying in tandem, spiraling and circling each other, the male suddenly diving at the female, the two grappling talons in mock combat. Even just earning a living, raptors have a flair for drama. Imagine the sight of a bird with a four-foot wingspan—a Swainson’s hawk—hovering like a helicopter before pouncing on prey.

Summer is nesting season, family time, for hawks. If these large birds are in your neighborhood, you can hardly miss them. Many build their nests in parks and open space strips, near roads, even in backyards. Watch for the large, dish-shaped stick nests of Swainson’s and red-tailed hawks. Raptor families are noisy. The adults often vocalize as they arrive with food, and the young call stridently to their parents when they’re hungry and during the time they fledge, or leave the nest. The kee-eer! cry of a red-tailed hawk—so dramatic that it is regularly used as a background sound in movies and TV shows—or the killy, killy, killy of a kestrel can be heard almost anywhere in the state, from backyards to remote mountains.

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You’d think being at the top of the food chain would make raptor-life relatively free of risks. Not so. Being the animal that eats the animal that eats something else means that any persistent poisons or chemicals are passed along to the top. Both peregrine falcons and bald eagles came close to extinction in the lower 48 states due to poisoning from DDT and other toxins. The banning of DDT, and rigorous efforts to recover these species, have been so successful that both birds have been removed from endangered status. A few years ago, tens of thousands of Swainson’s hawks lay dead in farm fields in Argentina, killed by agricultural pesticides. Changes in chemicals and application techniques have curbed that problem.

As with wildlife in general, the loss of habitat is the greatest threat to the hawks of summer as the wild places they need to nest and hunt are increasingly developed for growing towns and cities, agriculture, resource development and other uses. Species like hawks can be unintentionally affected by human action. Along Colorado’s Front Range, for example, the eradication of prairie dogs, a primary food for many raptors, means many places where raptors used to soar are haunted by hawks no longer.

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All birds of prey are strictly protected by federal law. It is a violation to possess, injure, kill, harass or collect them or their young, or to possess any feathers, eggs or body parts without a permit. If you find an injured raptor, don’t attempt to capture it yourself. Contact your local Division of Wildlife office. Injured birds will be collected and taken to a licensed wildlife rehabilitator.

Next: The Hawks of Summer in Detail

(The information contained in this issue of Colorado's Wildlife Company was accurate at the time of original publication. Situations and circumstances described, staff positions, contact information, and dates of some events may have changed in the interim. Present knowledge and understanding of biological and behavioral facts and information may also be different, now, than presented here.)