What bird sounds like a hawk?

In the East, a hawk scream from inside a leafy tree or near a feeder is very often a Blue Jay, which does a near-perfect copy of the Red-shouldered Hawk. In western forests the mimic is usually a Steller's Jay, which imitates Red-tailed Hawks, Red-shouldered Hawks and Ospreys. And the European Starling, the most abundant non-native bird on the continent, can drop a Red-tailed Hawk's scream into its song. And sometimes it really is a hawk: Red-shouldered Hawks are often heard before they are seen.

Listen: the Blue Jay

Blue Jays have a big vocabulary: the raucous jay! jay! everyone knows, a musical queedle-queedle, harsh cries, and one call that is almost indistinguishable from the shrill scream of a Red-shouldered Hawk. Audubon notes that one of their calls also resembles the Broad-winged Hawk. The impression is close enough that most people would bet on a hawk, which is why a hawk that seems to be shouting from the middle of an oak at eye level deserves a second look.

Jays live in oak and pine woods, groves, towns, well-wooded suburbs and city parks, and they favor places with plenty of oaks or beeches. They are present all year in most of their range, though variable numbers head south in fall, and their range has been spreading toward the Northwest. So the fake hawk can turn up in any month, from a backyard in the East or the Plains.

The other hawk impersonators

From the Rocky Mountain foothills west, the Blue Jay's relative takes over. Steller's Jays are noted mimics of other birds, other animals and even mechanical sounds, and they often copy birds of prey: Red-tailed Hawks, Red-shouldered Hawks and Ospreys. The imitation seems to work as a warning or a territorial signal, and other birds react to it by diving for cover and abandoning feeding spots. Researchers have found that the jays change how often they give their own alarm notes and their Red-tailed Hawk imitation depending on how they detected a predator. Look for them in pine-oak and conifer forest from southern Alaska to the eastern foothills of the Rockies, and in neighborhoods and farmland near those woods.

Starlings are the continent's most abundant non-native bird and skilled mimics. BirdNote describes the classic trick: you hear a Red-tailed Hawk's searing scream from a nearby tree, search for the hawk, and find a small, speckled starling instead. They are especially good with whistled sounds, such as the Killdeer's call and the Northern Bobwhite's quail call, and they also copy car alarms and phone ringtones. The leading idea is that a male adds borrowed sounds to grow his repertoire and impress females.

Or it really is a hawk

The Red-shouldered Hawk is a woodland hawk that is often heard before it is seen. Its clear, whistled call is most noticeable in spring, when males fly upward calling and then dive steeply in courtship, and pairs circle high over the nesting territory calling together. It lives in bottomland woods, wooded streamsides and swamps, in pine woods and mangroves in Florida, and in riverside forest and oak woodland in the West. If you can find a hawk with reddish shoulders and chest and narrow black and white bands across the wings and tail, the scream was genuine.

How to tell which one you heard

• Where it came from. A scream from dense leaves at close range, or from right beside the feeder, points to a mimic. A scream from birds circling high overhead, especially in spring, points to a real hawk.
• What came next. A Blue Jay soon goes back to jay-jay or queedle. A Steller's Jay breaks into its harsh shack series. A starling rolls on into whistles and borrowed sounds.
• Which part of the country. East of the Rockies, think Blue Jay. In western conifer forests, think Steller's Jay. Starlings, the continent's most abundant non-native bird, are the wild card anywhere.
• How the other birds react. Small birds may scatter for cover at a Steller's Jay's hawk call, so a sudden empty feeder does not prove there is a real hawk.

If the bird stays put and keeps calling, a recording of a few calls settles it. Warble can listen and tell you whether the singer is a jay, a starling or the hawk itself, although a perfect impression may leave it, like you, needing one more call.

Questions people ask

Warble is a game, not a field guide. Facts about birds on this page come from the sources above.