An adult red-shouldered hawk and a juvenile broad winged hawk in flight. Photos by Bob Dunlap, used on this page with permission.
Like many bird species, broad-winged hawks and red-shouldered hawks can become aggressive while protecting their nests and young. The behavior may include vocalizing with high pitched calls and swooping down at people and pets. Additional defensive behaviors are listed below.
Although the birds rarely make contact, this behavior can be intimidating. This aggressive activity may occur throughout their nesting season, generally from May to August, and often peaks in June to July after their chicks hatch.
If you are experiencing an aggressive hawk, avoid the nest area when possible. If you must enter the area, remain calm, avoid running and carry an umbrella or other protective item. Like any other animal exhibiting "bad" behavior, it is important that you train the hawk, do not let the hawk train you.
Remember the bird is trying to protect itself, its young and its nest. Flying at you or your pets is a side effect of feeling unsafe.
Raptors are protected under the federal Migratory Bird Treaty Act. You are not allowed to harm the birds or an active nest. Possessing, harming or transporting them is subject to state and federal prosecution.
What to do (and not to do) if you have a problem hawk
If a hawk is nesting near your home, try to avoid the immediate vicinity of the nest for 3 to 4 weeks. Keeping the birds calm and avoiding escalation is best. They only want to protect their young, so if they don’t perceive you as a threat, they are less likely to fly at you.
If avoiding the area just isn’t possible and the bird flies at you:
Do not run from the bird. This reinforces the aggressive behaviors. Tell your neighbors not to run from the bird. It is important to have consistent messaging when trying to mitigate the bird’s behaviors. If some people run, while others stand their ground, the message is mixed and the hawk will continue to escalate.
While you cannot use any weapons or objects to attack the birds, you can protect yourself or use objects to make yourself more threatening. For example:
Umbrellas are often the best defense against an aggressive hawk. Not only do they provide protection from the hawk’s attacks, but they can be shaken in an aggressive manner at the hawk allowing you to stand your ground. This allows you to train the hawk, instead of letting the hawk train you. They will realize you are not an easy target, and may start to ignore or avoid you.
If you do not have an umbrella or the umbrella is no longer working as effectively, you can also use:
Hardhats or helmets for protection.
Swinging or twirling a jacket, purse or backpack overhead for protection can deter the birds.
Brooms can be held over your head and used to “sweep” the sky to deter the bird.
A squirt gun or Super Soaker may effectively deter the bird from attacking.
To protect yourself in your yard
Using some or all of these tricks in your yard can also help diffuse the situation by conditioning the bird to very active yards, which means they may be less likely to be defensive and fly at you during normal yard usage.
Place a tarp or canopy tent to shield a yard or walkway.
Umbrellas over tables can protect you while on a deck.
Mylar, Bird Tape or other streamers strung over your yard and deck can help deter the hawks and make it difficult for them to dive down.
Install 8-10 foot poles topped with tethered mylar balloons, eye balloons (balloons that have printed eyes which make the bird think it is able to see) or other shiny, noisy spinning outdoor deterrents or décor. Fake owls or other objects that are stationary do not usually help long term since the birds get used to them quickly. The poles help deflect the bird from attacking you, so that they attack the balloons or other moving objects on the pole instead. The poles can also be used as anchor points for the protective streamers.
If the hawk is extremely aggressive, and has already escalated to dive bombing attacks that have drawn blood:
If a person or pet is attacked by a bird and the skin is broken, wash the wound and treat it with antiseptic. Consult with your doctor for further treatment.
Contact MN DNR and the USFWS for additional information and assistance.
You should continue to try to deter the birds with the methods listed above.
You cannot destroy, disturb or remove an active nest. Hawks and their active nests (nests with eggs or chicks) may not be touched or removed without permits from both the MN DNR and USFWS. Even with permits:
If permits are issued, they are only issued to the landowner in which the nest is located.
Removing one or both of the birds is often very difficult because they are not motivated by food, so trapping may not be successful.
Nests are often built in trees over 40’ high, which may require specialized equipment, and removing young or the nest may not change the behaviors of the adult birds.
If a permit is issued, it may have restrictions on when or how the birds or nest are taken.
The MN DNR is not responsible for removing the birds or nests, so you may have to cover any costs for hiring the specialized staff and equipment to remove the birds or nest if permits are issued.
Other things you can do:
Remove the nest after the nesting season.
The nonbreeding season is considered October 1 through April 1.
Inactive nests may be removed without a permit, except for eagle and osprey nests.
While nesting outside of the breeding season is unlikely, weather variability can impact nesting, so make sure the nest is not occupied (eggs or young) before removing it.
Cut down the trees or branches where the nest was located or could be located to prevent recurrence.
While broad wing hawks do not necessarily nest in the same location year after year, they often come back to the same neighborhood.
Lower hawk nests have been associated with increased attacks, so keeping branches that could support nest trimmed above 50’ may help. The safer the bird feels, the less it will manifest defensive behaviors.
You may have some success deterring nesting in the spring by using the methods above, which may make your yard very busy. The hawks may go to a less active and, what they would perceive, safer location.
Remember the bird is trying to protect itself, its young and its nest. Flying at you or your pets is a side effect of feeling unsafe. They are smart animals that learn what works and what doesn’t work to scare away threats, and they retain that knowledge during subsequent nesting seasons. If good patterns are established early, you may only experience aggressive behaviors for 3 weeks, especially around the 2 week post-hatch period. If “bad” behaviors are allowed to escalate, it can become a much longer problem.
The USFWS has additional information on aggressive hawks and you can learn more by clicking the tabs below.
- Common hawk defensive behaviors
If you are near a nest, you may hear a loud whistle or call. The vocalizations are often higher-pitched and sharper, sometimes repeated angrily until the perceived disturbance ends or leaves.
Another behavior often exhibited by a distressed bird is posturing, in which the bird puffs its feathers to appear larger and more threatening. The bird may also anxiously weave back and forth in flight.
If these threat postures fail to deter a perceived intruder, the bird may lunge or dive-bomb.
These dive-bombing behaviors may escalate to using its wings, talons and/or beak to attack.
When a hawk learns that escalating attacks have their desired outcome, they continue to do them. They also tend to attack more aggressively and get closer to the target as they escalate the attacks. They may even end up scratching or clawing at their target, sometimes drawing blood.
Escalation is a learned behavior, and the knowledge may be retained one season to the next, so a hawk may get more aggressive for longer over several nesting seasons.
- Nesting timeline for broad-winged hawks
- The parent birds will defend the territory, nest and chicks against intruders. Mostly they are defending their home area against red-tailed hawks, red-shouldered hawks, northern harriers or other broad-winged hawks. The nest is also vulnerable to raccoons, American crows, great horned owls and porcupines and bears.
The defensive behaviors are usually temporary and can change depending on where they are in the nesting cycle.
Early April: Broad-winged hawks arrive in Minnesota and establish or re-establish their territory for a few weeks. During this time, the pair bond.
By mid-May: They usually lay their eggs. During this time, you may see some defensive behaviors. It is very important to use the tricks listed above to prevent escalation during this time.
Mid to end of June: The chicks hatch. Like any new parent, this means they are very protective of their young, and hawks generally reach their peak aggression when the chicks are 2 weeks old. The young stay in the nest approximately 40 days.Before leaving the nest, the young start “branching,” where they sit on the branches and flap their wings to get ready to fly. There may be an uptick of parental protective behavior at this time.
Late July to early August: Once the young leave the nest and become proficient fliers, the hawks usually abandon the nest within a week.
- More information on broad-winged hawks
- Broad-winged hawks (Buteo platypterus) are relatively common in the Midwest. They are the smallest of the buteo hawks in the Midwest, only weighing in at about 9.3-19.8 oz (265-560 g). Red-shouldered hawks (Buteo lineatus) are more common in southern states, which is why your problem hawk is most likely a broad-winged hawk.
These hawks are birds of two worlds. They spend their winter in South America, flying up to 4,300 miles to return to Minnesota every spring. When they migrate, you can see hundreds of them “kettle”, using rising columns of warm air called “thermals” to circle high in the sky. Hawk Ridge in Duluth, MN is a great place to see this spectacle in person.
Nesting
Normally these hawks are found in deciduous or mixed forested areas. However, some of them have learned to set up territory and nest in our suburban areas. These birds nest in many species of trees, usually in the lower third to middle of the tree. The female usually builds the stick nest. It takes 2-4 weeks to build the nest assisted by the male hawk. The nest measures about 12-21 inches across and about 1-3” deep.
Eggs
The female then lays between 1-5 eggs (3 being the usual clutch size). She will sit on them for 28-31 days. The male replaces her so she can stretch, hunt and bathe, but the male mostly hunts and brings food to her.
Food
Broad-winged hawks eat a variety of things including insects, small mammals like mice and amphibians. They mostly hunt from a perch, spot prey and then fly down to try to catch it.
Caring for chicks
After the chicks hatch they are in the nest for approximately 40 days. After 40 days, they will begin “branching”, hopping in and out of the nest to practice flight. They then fledge and practice flying to different places. The parents will follow them and continue to feed them for a few weeks as the young learn how to hunt and be on their own. They all disperse soon after that.