5 Types of Hawks in Georgia: How to Identify Them in Your Backyard
October 10, 2026
A hawk perched on a roadside pole and a hawk darting low through a backyard hedge might belong to completely different families, even though both get called “hawk” by most people who spot them. Georgia hosts several types of hawks throughout the year, and five species account for nearly every sighting reported by birders, farmers, and homeowners across the state. Learning to separate a broad-tailed soarer from a compact, fast-flying forest hunter takes only a few field marks once you know what to look for.
This guide covers the five hawks most likely to cross paths with anyone spending time outdoors in Georgia, from wide-open farmland to dense suburban tree cover. Some of these birds stay put all year, while others only pass through during spring and fall migration. Each section below breaks down the calls, colors, and habits that make identification easier in the field.
| Species | Hawk Family | Georgia Status |
|---|---|---|
| Red-tailed Hawk | Buteo | Year-round resident |
| Red-shouldered Hawk | Buteo | Year-round resident |
| Broad-winged Hawk | Buteo | Spring/summer breeder, fall migrant |
| Cooper’s Hawk | Accipiter | Year-round resident |
| Sharp-shinned Hawk | Accipiter | Mostly fall/winter visitor |
1. Red-tailed Hawk
The red-tailed hawk (Buteo jamaicensis) is the bird most Georgians have already seen without realizing it. This is the most widespread and familiar large hawk in North America, bulky and broad-winged, designed for effortless soaring, and it is commonly seen perched on roadside poles or sailing over fields and woods. The same broad-tailed silhouette shows up across the country, including in Wisconsin’s hawk species and hawks found in Texas, though regional plumage can vary slightly by subspecies.
The Red-Tailed Hawk can be observed in Georgia throughout the year, with a size of 19.7 to 25.6 inches, a weight of 31.8 to 51.5 ounces, and a wingspan of 44.9 to 52.4 inches. Most red-tailed hawks are rich brown above and pale below, with a streaked belly and a dark bar between shoulder and wrist on the wing underside, while the tail is usually pale below and cinnamon-red above. Young birds lack that signature red tail, showing brown barring instead until their first full molt.
This species preys on a variety of small animals, including squirrels, rats, snakes, and birds, catching prey by swooping down from a perch or from soaring flight. Its sharp “keeeyah” scream is so recognizable that Hollywood sound editors frequently dub it over footage of eagles, since the Red-tailed Hawk’s call is often used for eagle sounds in cinema. Pairs mate for the long term, and stay together for life, taking a new mate only when the original mate dies, building a stick nest in a high tree where a clutch of one to three eggs is laid.
Important Note: Like every hawk in this guide, the red-tailed hawk is federally protected, and it is protected under the Migratory Bird Treaty Act in Canada, Mexico, and the United States, according to Birda’s species guide. Disturbing nests or capturing birds without a permit is illegal.
2. Red-shouldered Hawk
The red-shouldered hawk (Buteo lineatus) trades the red-tailed hawk’s open-country habits for a life in the woods. In Georgia the red-shouldered hawk is a year-round resident, and according to the Chattahoochee Nature Center, it avoids the more open areas favored by other hawks and instead inhabits the woodlands along streams, river valleys, wet meadows, forested swamps, and damp woods.
Visually, adults are beautiful with rich orange barring below and bold black-and-white checkerboard patterning on wings, a pattern that makes them one of the more strikingly marked hawks in the state. According to eBird’s Georgia range data, this species perches on wires more frequently than the red-tailed hawk, which can make roadside sightings a bit easier despite its forest habits.
Sound often gives this hawk away before sight does. It screams a repeated kee-yer, and its cries can be heard for miles, a call so distinctive that jays regularly mimic it. While red-tailed hawks own large open areas, red-shouldered hawks are primarily forest dwellers, favoring woods with an open upper canopy since the extra space allows them to hunt more efficiently. They have also adapted well to people; these raptors are common in suburban areas where houses have been mixed into woodlands, hunting squirrels, snakes, and amphibians from a low perch.
Not every population has held steady across the eastern United States. Over much of eastern North America the red-shoulder has become uncommon, sticking closely to the remaining forests, which makes protecting mature woodland corridors important for the species’ long-term future. Anyone tracking regional conservation trends can find more context on Georgia’s endangered species list.
3. Broad-winged Hawk
The broad-winged hawk (Buteo platypterus) is a compact buteo that spends most of its Georgia time out of sight. While broad-winged hawks live in Georgia and are fairly common, they are not often seen because they prefer spending their time in the deep woods away from humans. Its stocky build and banded black-and-white tail set it apart from the larger, paler-tailed red-tailed hawk, even though the two share a similar overall shape.
This species is best known for one of the most dramatic journeys in North American bird migration. Broad-winged hawks are probably best known for their epic migrations each fall, with the average bird traveling over 4,000 miles one way and completing the trip twice per year. While these birds spend their summers in the United States and Canada, they fly south for the winter to Central America and South America, riding thermal updrafts in large circling flocks called kettles rather than flapping the entire distance.
During fall migration, ridgelines and mountain passes across the Southeast can host dozens or even hundreds of broad-winged hawks streaming through in a single afternoon, a spectacle that draws birders to watch sites well beyond Georgia’s borders. Similar migration corridors pass through Oklahoma’s resident hawks and states farther west, since broad-winged hawks funnel through the same general flyways each autumn on their way south.
Pro Tip: September is the best month to spot broad-winged hawks in Georgia. Watch for groups circling together in thermals rather than single birds soaring alone, since that kettling behavior is a strong clue you’re looking at this species during migration.
4. Cooper’s Hawk
The Cooper’s hawk (Accipiter cooperii) belongs to a different branch of the hawk family tree than the three buteos above. Certain species like red-tailed hawks are Buteos, while Cooper’s hawks are Accipiters, a group known as buzzards in the Old World but recognized as hawks in the New World. Accipiters are built for speed and agility through tight woodland spaces rather than for soaring over open fields, and Georgia’s records confirm this species as one of its regular resident raptors, alongside the sharp-shinned hawk and northern goshawk.
Adults show a blue-gray back, a rusty-barred chest, and a long, rounded tail with a pale terminal band, features that separate them from any of the buteos covered above. Cooper’s hawks are ambush hunters, using dense cover and short bursts of speed to chase down songbirds, mourning doves, and the occasional squirrel. Backyard feeders that attract backyard doves and other small birds often become hunting grounds for this species, especially in winter when prey concentrates around feeding stations.
Nesting Cooper’s hawks favor mature stands of trees, often building a stick platform well above the ground and defending it aggressively against intruders, including humans who wander too close. Unlike the broad-winged hawk’s long-distance migration, most Georgia Cooper’s hawks stay put through the winter, making them one of the more consistent backyard sightings among the state’s accipiters.
5. Sharp-shinned Hawk
The sharp-shinned hawk (Accipiter striatus) is the smallest member of this lineup and the trickiest to separate from its close relative, the Cooper’s hawk. It shares the same blue-gray back and rufous-barred underside as an adult Cooper’s hawk, but everything about it runs smaller: a slimmer body, a proportionally tiny head, and a squared-off rather than rounded tail tip. This species is confirmed among Georgia’s regular Accipiter hawks alongside the Cooper’s hawk and northern goshawk in state bird records.
Sharp-shinned hawks breed mainly farther north, so Georgia sees its heaviest numbers during fall migration and winter, when birds from Canada and the northern United States move south to escape the cold. Backyard feeder-watchers sometimes get an unwelcome surprise when one of these hawks streaks through the yard after a chickadee or sparrow, using surprise and speed rather than a long chase to make a catch. Similar migratory patterns show up in Colorado hawk populations and Kansas hawks, where sharp-shinned numbers also climb once temperatures drop.
Pro Tip: To tell a sharp-shinned hawk from a Cooper’s hawk at a feeder, watch the head and tail. A sharp-shinned hawk’s head looks small and barely projects past its shoulders in flight, while a Cooper’s hawk’s head is larger and its tail tip is rounded rather than square.
Both accipiters differ sharply from the buteos discussed earlier in flight style: short, rapid wingbeats followed by a glide, rather than the long circling soars typical of a red-tailed or broad-winged hawk. That single habit is often the fastest way to sort an unfamiliar hawk into the right family before ever seeing plumage details. Readers curious how these five species compare to raptors elsewhere can check hawks across North America or browse related Georgia predators like types of falcons in Georgia and vultures found in Georgia for a fuller picture of the state’s raptor community.
Georgia’s mix of forests, farmland, wetlands, and suburban tree cover gives all five of these hawks room to thrive side by side. Once the tail shape, flight style, and calls click into place, telling a red-tailed hawk from a red-shouldered hawk, or a Cooper’s hawk from a sharp-shinned hawk, becomes second nature. The next hawk overhead or in the backyard hedge won’t just be “a hawk” anymore; it will be one of five specific, identifiable neighbors sharing the Georgia sky.