Red-shouldered hawk stays close to home

This hawk looks a lot like a common red-tailed hawk (chicken hawk) but it is not. It is a red-shouldered hawk.

The red-shouldered hawk is slightly smaller and tends to stay in or close to bottomland hardwood forests and swamps.

While fishing you may hear a red-shouldered hawk's loud "Kee -- AAWH" call repeated several times from the same tree with quiet intervals of a few minutes in between.

The typical perch for this hawk is a high tree limb where it can wait and search lower limbs and the ground for prey. Mice, chipmunks, frogs, small birds, snakes and crawfish make up the bulk of the red-shouldered hawk's diet. This tenacious hunter uses both great eyesight and hearing to locate its dinner.

The range of this bird covers mostly the eastern third of the U.S. Red-shouldered hawks living in Southeast Missouri do not migrate. Where food is plentiful, this hawk will often live out its whole life within a home range of about one and a half square miles. They usually live no more than three to four years, and they do not fly in flocks.

Through the Woods is a weekly nature photo column by Aaron Horrell.