It’s the bird with bloomers.
Unlike most birds, the rough-legged hawk has feathered legs all the way down to its talons. A good thing, too, since it lives in cold-weather habitats that include winters here in the Inland Northwest. If you were a bird, you’d still want to wear pants, too.
“It is a true cold-weather hawk,” said wildlife biologist Mark Vekasy of the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife.
Rough-legged hawks belong to the buteo genus of raptors that have robust bodies, short tails and broad wings for soaring flight. Affectionately called “roughies” by their many admirers, they started showing up in our region in October, followed by a large influx in November, according to Vekasy.
“They’re common to parts of Eastern Washington this time of year,” he said. “With the region’s cool winters, areas of open terrain and abundant prey, it’s ideal habitat for them.”
Roughies don’t join the millions of birds that migrate south for warm wintering spots. Escape the cold? Not these guys. Even their summering sites are chilly.
The arctic tundra, characterized by semi-frozen ground, few trees and windy conditions, is where they breed and hunt small prey. Even in July, feathered pants are a plus.
Roughies typically leave their arctic breeding grounds in late summer, Vekasy said, soaring southward along mountain ridges toward their winter destinations in the northern United States and southern Canada.
“By now, most of them have arrived,” he added.
Look for these winged visitors soaring above grasslands and fields, perched atop fence posts and utility poles, or hovering like drones as they zero in on mice and voles below.
Rough-legged hawks are similar in size to red-tailed hawks. Sometimes they share similar markings as well. Being that most red-tails are year-round residents, the two species overlap in our geographical range this time of year. To the untrained observer, telling the difference from a distance can be tricky.
So how to tell the two species apart?
Start with the most obvious – if you see feathered legs, it’s a roughie and not a red-winged.
But what if the bird is flying overhead and its legs aren’t visible? Then check out the wings’ undersides, Vekasy advised. If the bird is a roughie, each wing will display a blackish square at the “wrist” joint where the flight feathers meet. Called a carpal patch, “the dark coloration is very distinctive,” he said.
Another clue is how roughies hunt. Oftentimes these large birds linger aloft, helicopter-like, while scanning the ground for small rodents. “They are one of the few raptors that hover in place as they hunt,” according to the National Audubon Society.
With December only a day away, it may not be long before cold, snowy weather rages across our region. As winter drags on and we fantasize about vacationing someplace warm and dry, let’s remember the rough-legged hawk flew more than 2,000 miles from the arctic to spend winter among us.
For roughies, at least, winter is for the birds.
