Buzzin' Buzzards

Think of those big, bare-headed birds we often see eating that delicious roadkill off the side of a road. Thanks, in part, to old-western movies, they are often referred to as "Turkey Buzzards." However, they are Turkey Vultures, not Buzzards. Interestingly enough, over in Europe, our Red-Tailed Hawk is referred to as a Red-Tailed Buzzard. So, who's correct?

To find the answer, we'll have to look at their scientific classifications. The Turkey Vulture is classified as Cathartes aura, which places it in one of the several classes of Vultures. However, the Red-Tail is classified as Buteo jamaicensis, rendering it a close relative to Buteo buteo, which is the Red-Tail's European cousin, the Common Buzzard.

So, if the Red-Tail is a Buzzard, and the carrion-eating birds are Vultures, what are Hawks? The answer is actually quite simple. True hawks are classified as Accipiters. There are only three species of true Hawk in North America: The American Goshawk (Recently renamed to Accipiter atricapillus), Cooper's Hawk (A. cooperii), and Sharp-Shinned Hawk (A. striatus).

But wait, it gets better! It's not uncommon to hear people talking about how they saw a sparrowhawk hovering over a picturesque field in Lancaster county... you guessed it, sparrowhawk is also a slang term! We actually don't have sparrowhawks in the US; there are several species of sparrowhawk native to Eurasia, all of which are in the Accipiter (hawk) family. However, the feisty little raptor over here that often gets called that nickname is in fact the American Kestrel, which is a petite species of falcon.

That brings us to our final (and my personal favorite) misnomer: Chickenhawk. What exactly is a chickenhawk? His name is Henery and he waaaants chicken! Just kidding. I've yet to get a straight answer from anyone, but best I can figure, it's any raptor big enough to eat a chicken but smaller than an eagle. So, Red-Tailed Hawks, Cooper's hawks, and Red-Shouldered hawks are the three that get called that the most often.