A wide range of foods is eaten with vertebrate prey ranging in size from small mice to jackrabbits (0.5 ounces to about 4.5 pounds [14.3 grams to 9.9 kilograms]). Prey items vary be location, season, availability or even between adjacent pairs or individuals, but in general, mammals make up the bulk of most diets either in the number of prey items or biomass. Many regional studies have been completed on the Red-tailed Hawk, making generalizations less useful, but mammals have comprised from 37 to 99 percent of the diets in some studies. Other studies have indicated the following range of dietary compositions:
Birds 4 to 58 percent
Herptiles 0 to 41 percent
Invertebrates 0 to 21 percent
In eastern North America, voles, various species of mice, rats, and cottontails make up a large part of the diet with other common prey including the Ring-necked Pheasant, Northern Bobwhite, and other birds. In the western portions of the Red-tailed Hawk's range, snowshoe hares, black-tailed jackrabbits, and various species of ground squirrels, are important components. Snakes are also common in western diets along with pocket gophers, waterfowl, and small birds such as the Western Meadowlark and European Starling.
A partial list of prey species, not ordered by importance, includes red squirrel, eastern cottontail, varying hare, black-tailed jackrabbit, shrews, moles, bats, voles, mice, rats, pocket gophers, Richardson's ground squirrel, Columbian ground squirrel, other ground squirrel species, chipmunks, muskrat, domestic fowl, Ring-necked Pheasant, Northern Bobwhite, Ruffed Grouse, Gray Partridge, quails, dabbling ducks, crows, Black-billed Magpie, Screech-Owls, Burrowing Owl, shorebirds, European Starling, meadowlarks, other passerines, desert spiny lizard, yellow-bellied racer, gopher snake, garter snakes, western rattlesnake, turtles, various frogs and toads, salamanders, crayfishes, grasshoppers, centipedes, spiders, other insects, and carrion including fishes, cow, horse, sheep, jackrabbits, bobcat, coyote, and skunk.
PELLETS
They generally measure about two inches (5.1 centimeters) by 1.5 inches (3.8 centimeters) but many are smaller than this. They may be flat with one rounded side and some may have one tapered end. One pellet may represent several meals over several days or birds may eject one every one to two days, depending upon food supply.
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