Red-tailed Hawk Identification, All About Birds, Cornell Lab of Ornithology

Red-Tailed Hawk

Red-tailed hawks have that name for a reason - red tails! But those distinctive red feathers don't actually come in until they molt sometime after their first year. Before that, they are typically shades of brown and have streaks or bands across them. But as you can see from this video, there is a lot of color and pattern variability from one bird to the next. All the feathers you see here are red-tailed hawk tail feathers from hatch-year birds, or those hatched this past year. These feathers ar