red-tailed hawk

noun

: a widely distributed chiefly rodent-eating New World hawk (Buteo jamaicensis) that is usually mottled dusky above and white streaked dusky and tinged with buff below and has a rather short typically reddish tail

called also redtail

Illustration of red-tailed hawk

Illustration of red-tailed hawk

Examples of red-tailed hawk in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web
Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to show current usage. Read More Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.
Levin drove me to Ann Arbor, interrupting himself occasionally to point out a red-tailed hawk, then speed-walked to the Diag, the central quad on the university’s campus, where about a hundred people stood in a circle. Andrew Marantz, The New Yorker, 23 Sep. 2024 During his recovery, his father bought him a red-tailed hawk, igniting a lifelong passion for falconry. Clare Malone, The New Yorker, 5 Aug. 2024 In March, 16 days after Sirica first treated the incapacitated red-tailed hawk, Paula Goldberg, former executive director of City Wildlife, opened the trunk of her Toyota SUV to reveal a small white box perforated with air holes. Bydina Fine Maron, science.org, 10 July 2024 Listen to this article Nearly two months ago, the Oregon Ridge Nature Center lost Stella, their resident partially blind red-tailed hawk, when a falling tree crashed through her enclosure, opening it to the sky above. Christine Condon, Baltimore Sun, 12 June 2024 See all Example Sentences for red-tailed hawk 

Word History

First Known Use

1805, in the meaning defined above

Time Traveler
The first known use of red-tailed hawk was in 1805

Dictionary Entries Near red-tailed hawk

Cite this Entry

“Red-tailed hawk.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/red-tailed%20hawk. Accessed 7 Dec. 2024.

Kids Definition

red-tailed hawk

noun
ˌred-ˌtāld-
: an American hawk that has a rather short usually reddish tail and feeds mostly on small rodents (as mice)

called also redtail

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