Red-Tails and Kestrels are Everywhere

     Red-tails and American kestrels are common hawks in southeastern Pennsylvania, as throughout most of North America, the year around.  Both species are adaptable, the main reason they are abundant.  Both mostly inhabit farmland, but red-tails also live in woodland edges, and older suburban areas where there is an abundance of gray squirrels.  Both perch along roadsides to watch for mice and other prey animals, a place where they are readily seen.  Many individuals of these species of raptors annually nest here, while others winter here.  Still other birds of these species pass through this area in migration, in big numbers, during spring and autumn.  These species are north-bound during March and April.  And kestrels go south from August through October, while red-tails mostly migrate south during October and November.
     Red-tails are soaring hawks (buteos).  They have that name because adults have reddish-orange tails when they are at least three years old. 
     Red-tailed hawks probably originally lived and nested in woodland clearings in eastern North American during the days of American Indians.  But these hawks expanded their range and numbers as the forests were cleared by European colonists to make croplands.  Today red-tails are most likely to hatch young in stick, platform cradles in lone trees in fields and in older suburban areas and towns with their tall trees.
     Most red-tails in southeastern Pennsylvania today spend winter nights in the shelter of tall spruce trees with their densely-needled boughs that block the cold wind.  All spruces in this part of Pennsylvania were planted on lawns, as this area has no native spruces. 
     Late in winter afternoons, one can see one or a few red-tails soaring and gliding low through suburbs and towns on their ways to needled roost trees.  And if one watches those same spruce trees early the next morning, the hawks can be spotted exiting them and cruising out to fields or suburbs where they attempt to catch mice and squirrels.
     American kestrels are the smallest and most attractive species of falcon in North America.  They must have evolved in open habitats because they seem to prefer that niche to this day.  And they developed the trait of hovering into the wind just enough to hold a stationary position in the air while watching the ground for mice, grasshoppers and other small prey.  They would only have to flutter into the wind in habitats with no lofty perches, such as trees.  But they do perch on tree twigs in open habitats, where trees are available, and roadside wires, to look for prey.
     Roadside banks in farmland are riddled with the runways and tunnels of field voles (a kind of mouse) and brown rats.  Red-tails and kestrels regularly patrol those banks from the air, nearby trees and roadside wires in hopes of catching some of those rodents.  But those raptors need to be careful to avoid approaching traffic when they drop to the roadsides to snare rodents.
     Streambank fencing along waterways offers more shelter and food for ducks, rodents, larger insects, a variety of birds and other kinds of critters adapted to agricultural areas.  Some of those creatures will feed red-tails and kestrels the year around.                   
     American kestrels originally nested in abandoned woodpecker holes and other tree cavities, and still do.  But they have also adapted to hatching offspring in barns and bird boxes erected especially for them and screech owls.  Those human-made nesting hollows helped increase the numbers of kestrels and screech owls, though their populations fluctuate at times because of numerous factors.
     Red-tails and kestrels are everywhere the year around.  We need only to get outside and look for these striking and interesting hawk species.