If there was one bird that I had a love-hate relationship with it probably would be with this bird. I think they are the most common bird of prey in the Norman area, I feel like anywhere I turn I see them, and I hear them when I don’t want to hear anything. When I was working the nightshift at Mercy hospital these guys would decide to shriek right when I was going to sleep. On the other hand, whenever I talk about them almost nobody knows what I am talking about. Like how?? They are literally everywhere. I am their biggest defender and enemy.

These guys are SO easy to id. Look for the perfect triangle of a tail on their grey bodies. They sometimes have a lighter head than wings, but I have also seen ones that are slate grey all over. There was this one that used to sit on the same branch of a pine tree right outside my window every single day. I named it Corbin. He also came back this year which leads me to believe that they migrate and return to the same place to breed. I just looked it up and this is a controversial point, looks like the general consensus is they return to the same area but select new nest sites yearly.

I was going to end this entry on the last paragraph but in my research, there is an interesting habitat distribution of these birds. They reside in the United States during breeding season and winter in central South America. Their concentration is relatively diffuse along the Mississippi River, and they are more concentrated along the southeastern coast of the United States near marshes and rivers. Recently their population has had a major increase along the western great planes (Tex/OK area) and they behave differently in these areas, more residential nesting sites further from water in larger colonies. which is why I have been seeing so many of them in the great planes area. They are also locally abundant, so I guess Norman has a lot of large insects.

Here is a special entry for my fans. I usually keep these little blog posts to one species and ramble about them for a few paragraphs. Today you are going to experience the POWER of a compare and contrast between the two hawks that are often mistaken for each other: the RED (tailed/shouldered) hawks. I think both of these are common across Oklahoma, but the red-tailed hawk is slightly more common. Actually, red-shouldered hawks are only found in the eastern half of the U.S., so I think Oklahoma is the on edge of their habitat zone. Lucky lucky!

Starting with the red-tailed hawk, these guys are slightly larger with many different morphs noted - I'm talking like tens of morphs, so you can't count on coloring alone. They do have some commonalities. Usually very light plumage in the underwing and a solid (usually reddish/pinkish or even white) tail plumage. The tail looks redder on the top plumage compared to the underside. I don't have any special stories about these guys except I have done some dangerous driving at times on the highway to take a long look at them. It's not my fault that I only seem to see them when I'm driving!

The red-shouldered hawk is slightly smaller with banding on its tail and underwing. It doesn't have as many morphs so you can count on dark banding to be indicative of this fellow. It also has a larger RED SHOULDER type coloring than the light morph of the red-tailed hawk commonly seen here in Oklahoma. I have seen these guys in Oklahoma, but I found quite a few of them on a (very short) trip to Fort Worth, so I bet you they are more common in Texas.

see if you can id the birds on the side lol