Red-shouldered Hawk

Status Rare transient, very rare in summer. Occurrences recorded by Blakiston and Bland (1856), Downs (1865), H.F. Tufts (1899) and Townsend (1906) all lack supporting evidence. The first modern sighting was reported by D.F. Rupert (of Sarnia, Ontario), who gave good details of an adult soaring over Wallace, Cumberland County, on 15 July 1966. An emaciated corpse found in a snowbank at Louis Head, Shelburne County, on 1 March 1975 was forwarded to the Nova Scotia Museum as the first confirmed occurrence of the species. Otherwise, sightings have been reported by reliable observers almost annually since 1973, somewhat more frequently of late. Only six individuals have been seen in spring (28 April-27 May), but there have been 12 reports totalling about 30 individuals for fall (25 August-23 November), mostly during hawk flights on Brier Island. There are June reports from Cape Breton Highlands National Park and Yarmouth and Kings counties. Most surprising were well-documented stragglers on Christmas Bird Counts at Brier Island in 1974, 1976 and 1979.

Remarks Although immatures of this bird can be confused with those of Red-tailed and Broad-winged Hawks, the more slender Red-shouldered Hawk has darker underwing coverts, is uniformly streaked below (the red-tails have unstreaked breasts, and broad-wings have unstreaked bellies), and usually has a distinctive pale "window" at the base of the primaries when seen overhead. As the normal range of the Red shouldered Hawk lies only slightly south and west of Nova Scotia, its occasional presence here is not unexpected and the recent summer reports suggest that it might nest here rarely.