Birding

Rough-legged Hawk

November 11, 2026 by Leslie Kinrys No Comments

As we get into mid-November, things slow down at our hawk watches. Most of the raptors have passed over our watch sites. However, there are still some treats for the determined watchers. We brave the November weather, hoping for geese, cranes, and raptors of the far north.

Along with Golden Eagles, the sighting of a Rough-legged Hawk is cause for excitement, because they are infrequently seen at our watches. This large and lanky buteo has light and dark morphs. The Roughie breeds in the far north of Canada. It’s North America’s only buteo with populations in Europe and Asia. In winter, it leaves its breeding range for southern Canada to California, southern Arizona, and southern New Mexico. Migration is from August through December, but we usually see them from late October into late November. They follow coastlines, like other raptor migrants.

Golden Eagle (immature)

This past Monday, the winds were out of the northwest, cold and strong. The sky was overcast, but we expected we would see birds silhouetted against the clouds. The morning started off with Common Loons, flying high above us. Later, a Pacific Loon flew over, too. Then, there were flights of songbirds. We had American Robin, Eastern Bluebird, Cedar Waxwing, Purple Finch, Siskins, Common Grackles, and Red-Winged Blackbirds. We felt all this movement was a positive sign for a good day of November raptor watching. But, we were wrong. In three hours of watching, we had just two migrating Red-tailed Hawks!

Red-tailed Hawk

Our numbers dwindled to four disgruntled watchers. I was huddled in my chair, with a blanket wrapped around me, when my friend yelled at me to get up and look around. A dark morph Rough-legged Hawk had just flown low over our watch site. She wanted to make sure I saw it before it disappeared behind the trees. Finally, we had our bird of the day! As we were not expecting any more raptors to come through, it was time to leave for warm homes and hot drinks.

Note: All photos are from Wikipedia Commons, an online source of copyright-free photos: Dark morph Rough-legged Hawk (top of article) by Wildreturn; Golden Eagle by GlacierNPS; Red-tailed Hawk by Michael Newlon.

 

Written by Leslie Kinrys
Leslie Kinrys has loved birds, since her father put a House Sparrow fledgling in her young hands. She lives and birds in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, with some trips farther afield. She enjoys seeing all species of birds, but her favourites are hummingbirds. Also, Leslie enjoys reading, listening to Country music, getting together with friends, and rooting for her baseball team: the Toronto Blue Jays.