Chuck Kempton, age 13, of Nogales, Ariz., for his question:
IS THE HAWK A FRIEND OR FOE?
Some farmers tell all who will listen that they hate the hawk. They call the bird "chicken hawk" or "hen hawk" and say it is an enemy of the farmer's poultry yard. But experts in the United States Department of Agriculture have gone on record to say that the hawk definitely is not an enemy of the farmer.
The experts will tell you that the red shouldered hawk eats field mice, grasshoppers, frogs and other small creatures, including insects. The bird does not prey on smaller birds nearly as much as has been said.
Actually, the hawk befriends smaller birds by eating the animals that rob their nests.
The red shouldered hawk has the same hooked beak, keen eye and fierce manner as his larger relative, the eagle. A male will measure about 20 inches in length while his mate will be about two inches larger.
The male's wingspread is about four feet. The handsome bird's head, neck and back are a deep reddish brown with flecks of bright red. Every feather is edged and marked in darker shades.
The red shouldered hawk is a slow flying bird that usually perches on a limb as it looks for its prey. When it spots a small animal, the hawk can strike with deadly swiftness. It then swallows its food whole or tears it into large hunks and bolts it down.
One of the best known and most handsome members of the family is the marsh hawk. It is widely distributed over the U.S. Another well known North American variety is the red tailed hawk. This is the bird that is most often called the chicken hawk. But in spite of its reputation, it rarely raids the chicken house. It prefers rats and rabbits.
The red tailed hawk is larger than the red shouldered hawk and has a wingspread of more than 50 inches. As its name suggests, it has a beautiful red tail. It travels as far north as Alaska and Labrador during the summer and in the winter moves south to Central America and the West Indies.
A feud is going on between the red tailed hawk and the crow. The crow starts the fights. The hawk uses a flying defense since it can turn in midair and ward off its foes with its sharp talons.
The sharp skinned hawk is one of the smaller hawks. Less than one foot in length, it is even more fierce and bolder than the larger members of the family.
The goshawk is one of the larger hawks in the family. The male is about 22 inches long and the female, as is the case in all of the species, is about two inches longer. It is found in the far north and not seen in the U.S. too often, although it comes south for the winter.
The Cooper's hawk is about 18 inches long and has a wingspread of almost three feet. Its feathers are much like that of the sharp skinned hawk. But instead of perching on a lookout, this bird pursues its prey on the wing. Fast and sudden in its attack, it lives mostly on rodents.