Red-tailed Hawk - Taxonomy

Taxonomy

The Red-Tailed Hawk is a member of the genus Buteo, a group of medium-sized raptors with robust bodies and broad wings. Members of this genus are known as buzzards in Europe, but hawks in North America.

There are at least 14 recognized subspecies of Buteo jamaicensis, which vary in range and in coloration:

• B. j. jamaicensis, the nominate subspecies, occurs in the northern West Indies, including Jamaica, Hispaniola, Puerto Rico and the Lesser Antilles but not the Bahamas or Cuba. El Yunque National Forest, Puerto Rico holds the highest known density of Red-tailed Hawks anywhere.
• B. j. alascensis breeds (probably resident) from southeastern coastal Alaska to the Queen Charlotte Islands and Vancouver Island in British Columbia.
• B. j. borealis breeds from southeast Canada and Maine south through eastern Texas and east to northern Florida. It winters from southern Ontario east to southern Maine and south to the Gulf coast and Florida.
• B. j. calurus breeds from central interior Alaska, through western Canada south to Baja California. It winters from southwestern British Columbia southwest to Guatemala and northern Nicaragua. Paler individuals of northern Mexico may lack the dark wing marking.
• B. j. costaricensis is resident from Nicaragua to Panama. This subspecies is dark brown above with cinnamon flanks, wing linings and sides, and some birds have rufous underparts. The chest is much less heavily streaked than in northern migrants (B. j. calurus) to Central America.
• B. j. fuertesi breeds from northern Chihuahua to southern Texas. It winters in Arizona, New Mexico, and southern Louisiana. The belly is unstreaked or only lightly streaked, and the tail is pale.
• B. j. fumosus Islas Marías, Mexico
• B. j. hadropus Mexican Highlands
• B. j. harlani, Harlan's Hawk, is markedly different from all other Red-tails. In both color morphs, the plumage is blackish and white, lacking warm tones (save the tail). The tail may be reddish, dusky, whitish, or gray and can be longitudinally streaked, mottled, or barred. Shorter primaries result in wingtips that don't reach the tail in perched birds. It breeds in Alaska and northwestern Canada and winters from Nebraska and Kansas to Texas and northern Louisiana. This population may well be a separate species.
• B. j. kemsiesi is a dark subspecies resident from Chiapas to Nicaragua. The dark wing marking may not be distinct in paler birds.
• B. j. kriderii is paler than other Red-tails, especially on the head; the tail may be pinkish or white. In the breeding season, it occurs from southern Alberta, southern Saskatchewan, southern Manitoba, and extreme western Ontario south to south-central Montana, Wyoming, western Nebraska, and western Minnesota. In winter, it occurs from South Dakota and southern Minnesota south to Arizona, New Mexico, Texas and Louisiana.
• B. j. socorroensis Socorro Island, Mexico
• B. j. solitudinus Bahamas and Cuba
• B. j. umbrinus occurs year-round in peninsular Florida north to Tampa Bay and the Kissimmee Prairie. It is similar in appearance to calurus

The four island forms, jamaicensis, solitudinus, socorroensis, and fumosus, do not overlap in range with any other subspecies.