red-tailed hawk

noun

ˈred-ˌtāld- 

: a widely distributed chiefly rodent-eating New World hawk (Buteo jamaicensis) that is usually mottled dusky above and white streaked dusky and tinged with buff below and has a rather short typically reddish tail

called also redtail

Illustration of red-tailed hawk

Examples of red-tailed hawk in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

Levin drove me to Ann Arbor, interrupting himself occasionally to point out a red-tailed hawk, then speed-walked to the Diag, the central quad on the university’s campus, where about a hundred people stood in a circle. —Andrew Marantz, The New Yorker, 23 Sep. 2024

During his recovery, his father bought him a red-tailed hawk, igniting a lifelong passion for falconry. —Clare Malone, The New Yorker, 5 Aug. 2024

In March, 16 days after Sirica first treated the incapacitated red-tailed hawk, Paula Goldberg, former executive director of City Wildlife, opened the trunk of her Toyota SUV to reveal a small white box perforated with air holes. —Bydina Fine Maron, science.org, 10 July 2024

Listen to this article Nearly two months ago, the Oregon Ridge Nature Center lost Stella, their resident partially blind red-tailed hawk, when a falling tree crashed through her enclosure, opening it to the sky above. —Christine Condon, Baltimore Sun, 12 June 2024

Word History

First Known Use

1805, in the meaning defined above

Kids Definition

red-tailed hawk

noun

ˌred-ˌtāld-

: an American hawk that has a rather short usually reddish tail and feeds mostly on small rodents (as mice)

called also redtail