Toronto and Hamilton Red Tailed Hawks

by Judy, Stephen, Gord
(Toronto & Hamilton, Ontario, Canada)

Judy from Toronto reports ... As a former country girl, I love wildlife; and none more than our majestic birds of prey. I feel very fortunate to have had a few sightings right in my Toronto backyard.

I've already written about one of them – a juvenile watching my other backyard birds and the squirrels from a branch of my tree.

On another day I spotted a Red Tail just over my neighbours fence on their tree. S(he) flew to some shrubbery. I had an even closer view as he watched the small backyard birds feeding at my feeders. Many of these little birds would fly back into the shrubbery and every now and then I could see the hawk tilting his head from side to side watching them inside these shrubs below him.

On yet another day, my husband was about to go into our backyard to fill the feeders. He looked up to see a Red Tail on our pergola no more than 8 feet away, again watching the birds or maybe the squirrels under the feeders. This was our closest sighting yet!

Stephen from Hamilton recently wrote to say ... A Red Tailed Hawk was sitting in my backyard about 10 feet from my window for the last while because I have a bird feeder an it is trying to catch the pigeons and the squirrels. It has caught the pigeons already because I have seen the feathers in my backyard along with the blood and bones in the snow.

Gord from Toronto reported his sighting of a Red Tailed Hawk ... I saw a hawk in downtown Toronto, a large Red Tailed Hawk by the Madison Hotel, eating something. First time I've every seen a Hawk on the ground in T.O.