<P> Pairs either court for the first time or engage in courtship rituals to strengthen pre-existing pair bonds before going into the breeding . The breeding season usually begins in late February through March, but can commence as early as late December in Arizona and late January in Wisconsin or to the opposite extreme as late as mid-April as in Alberta . In this pre-nesting period, high - circling with much calling will occur . One or both members of a pair may be involved . The courtship display often involves dangling legs, at times the pair will touching each other's wings and male's feet may touch female's back, she may occasional roll over and present talons, food passes are rarely reported . High soaring occurs aseasonally . Circling above territory tends to be done noisily and conspicuously, helping insure against possible takeovers . Spring circling of a pair can be a prelude to copulation . A typical sky - dance involves the male hawk climbing high in flight with deep, exaggerated beats and then diving precipitously on half - closed wings at great speed, checking, and shooting back up, or often plunging less steeply and repeating process in a full rollercoaster across the sky . Sky - dances are done on periphery of the pair's territory and it appears to designate the territory limits, occasionally one male's sky - dance may also trigger a sky - dance by a neighboring male, who may even run a parallel course in the sky . Sky - dances no longer occur after late incubation . Boundary flight displays may be engaged in by all four birds of 2 adjacent pairs . Cartwheeling with interlocking talons is also seen occasionally in spring, almost always a territorial male expelling an intruding one, the latter often being a second or third year male that is newly mature . A perched display, with fluffed - out breast feathers may too occur at this time . Even males that are in spring migration have been recorded engaging in a separate display: circling at slow speed before partially closing wings, dropping legs with talons spread and tilting from side - to - side . A female hawk is usually around when migrating male does this but she does not engage in this display herself . The area of occupancy of breeding territories by pairs is variable based on regional habitat composition . The highest recorded density of pairs was in California where each pair occurred on 1.3 km (0.50 sq mi), which was actually just ahead of Puerto Rico where pair occupancy averaged 1.56 km (0.60 sq mi) in peak habitat . The largest known average territory sizes were surprisingly in Ohio, where the average area of occupancy by pairs was recorded as 50 km (19 sq mi). In Wisconsin mean ranges for males range from 1.17 to 3.9 km (0.45 to 1.51 sq mi) in males and from 0.85 to 1.67 km (0.33 to 0.64 sq mi) in females, respectively in summer and winter . Here and elsewhere, both members of the pair stay quite close together throughout winter if they're sedentary . Other the other hand, migrant populations tend to separate while migrating and return to the same territory to find its prior mate, sometimes before they reach their home range . In Alaska, returning migrant pairs were able to displace lone red - tailed hawks that had stayed on residence, especially lone males but sometimes even lone females . In general, the red - tailed hawk will only take a new mate when its original mate dies . Although pairs often mate for life, replacement of mates can often be quite fast for this common bird species . In one case in Baja California, when a female was shot on May 16, the male of that pair was seen to have selected a new mate the following day . In copulation, the female, when perched, tilts forward, allowing the male to land with his feet lodged on her horizontal back . The female twists and moves her tail feathers to one side, while the mounted male twists his cloacal opening around the female's cloaca . Copulation lasts 5 to 10 seconds and during pre-nesting courtship in late winter or early spring can occur numerous times each day . </P> <P> The pair constructs a stick nest most often in a large tree 4 to 21 m (13 to 69 ft) off the ground or on a cliff ledge 35 m (115 ft) or higher above the ground, or may nest on virtually any man - made structures with some variety of ample ledges or surface space and good views of the surrounding environment (i.e. powerline poles, radio transmission towers, skyscraper buildings). Much variation is recorded in nest usage behavior, many red - tails build new nests every year despite prior nests sometimes being in good standing and unoccupied, some may reuse a nest in subsequent years or may leave a nest for a year and then come back to it the following year . A red - tailed hawk nest is typically located in a gradient zone between woods with tall, mature trees, if available, and openings whether this is composed of shrubland, grassland or agricultural areas . Nest sites vary greatly in topography and vegetative composition . At times, unlike great horned owls, red - tailed hawks have been recorded nesting in surprisingly unbroken forests . In North Dakota, nest sites tend to be concentrated along wooded river drainages . Compared to Swainson's hawks and ferruginous hawks, red - tailed hawk nests are usually in taller trees and are closer to waterways . In Puerto Rico, nests are most often found in transitional zone between dry lowlands and mountainous cloud forests, with trees typically taller than their neighbors to allow views of more than half of their home ranges . More than 21 tree species were recorded used in Puerto Rico . Tree species is seemingly unimportant to red - tailed hawks . In some parts of Arizona, saguaro cactus were used exclusively as nesting sites . Alternately, old nests of other Buteo hawks, corvids, golden eagles and even leaf nests of tree squirrels have also been used by red - tailed hawks . Both members of the pair will build the nests but the female spends more time forming the bowl, with the greatest activity often in the morning and nest building completed in a week or less . The nest is generally 71 to 97 cm (28 to 38 in) in diameter, with a mean of roughly 76 cm (30 in), and can be up to 96 cm (38 in) tall after several years use . The inner bowl averages about 37 cm (15 in) wide and 13 cm (5.1 in) deep . The nest is constructed of twigs, and lined with bark, pine needles, corn cobs, husks, stalks, aspen catkins, or other plant lining matter . Lining the nest may be for warning other red - tails of the active use of a nest . In moderate to northern climes, red - tailed hawks tend to face to the south or west, presumably to make them less vulnerable to strong northeasterly storm winds . </P> <P> In most of the interior contiguous United States the first egg is laid between mid-March and early April, ranging from 3 to 5 weeks after the nest is constructed, with the clutch completed 2 to 5 days after the initial egg is laid . The average date of the laying the first egg can be variable: peaking mid-January in Puerto Rico, averaging March 9th in Arizona, March 26 in the Front Range Urban Corridor and May 1st in Alberta . The mean initiation of clutches may bump weeks later if 10 cm (3.9 in) or more of snow is still on the ground in Wisconsin during March . A clutch of one to three eggs is laid in March or April, depending upon latitude, with four eggs being uncommon and five and perhaps even six increasingly rare . Clutch size depends almost exclusively on the availability of prey for the adults . At the species level, body size also determines clutch size . For example, while the total clutch weighs up to 18% of the females weight and the clutch size averages 2 to 3, a larger raptor like the golden eagle lays a smaller clutch, usually not more than two, that weighs less than 10% in total of the female's body mass, whereas a smaller raptor like the kestrel lays a larger clutch averaging five that weighs 50% of the females weight . Average clutch size vary from 1.96 in Alaska when prey populations were low up to 2.96 in Washington . Eggs are laid approximately every other day . Average egg sizes in height and width (each with a sample size of 20) are in the following subspecies - B. j. borealis: 59.53 mm × 47.49 mm (2.344 in × 1.870 in); B. j. calurus: 60.04 mm × 47.1 mm (2.364 in × 1.854 in); B. j. fuertesi: 59.42 mm × 46.99 mm (2.339 in × 1.850 in). The eggs of red - tailed hawks are mostly white, sometimes with a faint buffy wash; at times the eggs manifest a sparsely or heavily marked with blotches of buff, pale reddish - brown, dark brown, or purple . The markings often appear indistinctly and may combine to form a fine speckling . They are incubated primarily by female, with the male substituting when the female leaves to hunt or merely stretch her wings . Rarely do the males incubate more than four hours of daylight . The male brings most food to the female while she incubates . </P> <P> After 28 to 35 days of incubation (averaging about three days longer in the Caribbean as does fledgling as compared to North American red - tails), the eggs hatch over 2 to 4 days . Like most raptorial birds, the nestlings are altricial and nidicolous at hatching . Hatchlings average 58 g (2.0 oz) in body mass with no difference in sizes of the sexes until the young are about 29 days old for mass and 21 days or so for external linear standard measurements such as bill and talon size . The female broods them while the male provides most of the food to the female and the young, which are also known as eyasses (pronounced "EYE - ess - ez"). The female feeds the eyasses after tearing the food into small pieces . The young red - tails are active by the second day when they issue soft peeping calls, bounce, and wave continuously with their wings . By day 7, the bouncing and peeping begin to wane, and young start to peck at prey in their nest . Nestlings emit high whistling notes (usually in response to adults overhead) by day 10, sit up on tarsometatarsi by day 15, become aggressive toward intruders by day 16, strike out with talons and wings by day 21, begin to stretch wings and exercise regularly by day 30 . After 42 to 46 days, the eyasses begin to leave the nest and tear apart prey for themselves . The amount of food brought to the nest daily varies considerably, based on brood size and prey availability . In Alberta, an average of 410 to 730 g (14 to 26 oz) is brought each day for 1 to 3 nestlings while in Washington, it was estimated a minimum of 520 g (1.15 lb) per day for 1 surviving nestling and in Wisconsin, an estimated 219 g (7.7 oz) was needed for 1 nestling and 313 g (11.0 oz) for 2 . Brooding is strenuous for parent red - tails and both members of the pair usually lose some weight, especially the female . Some females may lose over 100 g (3.5 oz) between hatching and fledging . During brooding the female may become aggressive to intruders, including humans . In the east, red - tailed hawk females rarely defends nests from humans but historically in California and quite often still in Alaska, some female will dive repeatedly and "savagely", sometimes snapping off large branches in her temper, occasionally stunning herself or inadvertently knocking down her own youngster if it is attempting to fledge . Apparently, the less extensive prior exposure they have to humans may make mature females more aggressive towards humans near the nest . Although development is asynchronical in most nests, runting may sometimes be recorded and even siblicide may occur, with the parents feeding the weaker, younger chicks less so and both the siblings and parents occasionally aggressively pecking the "runts" of the nest . Ultimately, the runt in such cases does not usually survive and may be either be found crushed in the nest, discarded out of the nest after starvation or consumed by the parents or the siblings . However, as a whole, such killings are fairly rare and only when food supplies are extremely low, often this being in sync with poor spring weather (such as overly rainy or cold conditions). If there is too much food, such as California ground squirrels in California, the parents will discard remains after a day or two since decomposition of their prey invites infection, other diseases and blood - sucking insects to the nest that may endanger the nestlings . However, after about four weeks, the female often stops discarding leftover prey and the increased presence of flies may form somewhat of a risk to disease in the young but may also merely get the young to leave the nest sooner . One nest in California had two females and one male attended to, the male performing his usual function but both females would brood and tend to the nest . </P>

When do red tailed hawks lay their eggs
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