Anguilla, Antigua and Barbuda, Bahamas, Barbados, Belize, Canada (B) (NB) (P), Cayman Islands, Costa Rica, Cuba, Dominica, Dominican Republic, El Salvador, Guadeloupe, Guatemala, Haiti, Honduras, Jamaica (B), Martinique, Mexico, Montserrat, Netherlands Antilles (B), Nicaragua, Panama, Puerto Rico, St Kitts and Nevis, St Lucia, St Vincent and The Grenadines, Turks and Caicos Islands, USA (B), Virgin Islands (British) (B) (NB), Virgin Islands (U.S.) (B) (NB).
Vagrant to Bermuda, Colombia, Venezuela.
Rarity Status
Currently this species is not classified as a rarity in this country OR information has not been updated.
Population
Estimated population is 2,000,000 (2010).
Red-tailed Hawk (Buteo jamaicensis) [XC872828]
by Al\u00e1n Palacios from Isla Socorro -- Volc\u00e1n Everman, Mexico (display)
Red-tailed Hawk (Buteo jamaicensis) [XC14853]
by Allen T. Chartier from Moffat County, Colorado, United States (call)
Subspecies
Forms superspecies with Rufous-tailed Hawk (Buteo ventralis). Some authors include Eurasian Buzzard (Buteo buteo), Mountain Buzzard (Buteo oreophilus) and Madagascar Buzzard (Buteo brachypterus) in same superspecies. Subspecies harlani has variously been treated as full species, or colour morph of calurus. Likewise, kriderii sometimes considered a morph, mainly within range of calurus, but also in boundary region between calurus and borealis; however, kriderii is a pale form inhabiting an area also occupied by similarly pale subspecies richardsoni of Merlin (Falco columbarius).
The following 15 subspecies are recognised:
alascensis Grinnell, 1909 - South-eastern Alaska (USA) and coastal British Columbia (western Canada).
harlani (Audubon, 1830) - Interior of Alaska, south-western Yukon and northern British Columbia.
calurus Cassin, 1855 - Western North America west of Great Plains.
borealis (Gmelin, JF, 1788) - Northern America east of Great Plains of central USA and Canada.
kriderii Hoopes, 1873 - Plains of south-central Canada south to Wyoming (north-central USA).
fuertesi Sutton & van Tyne, 1935 - Texas (southern USA) to northern Mexico.
hadropus Storer, 1962 - Highlands of central Mexico.
kemsiesi Oberholser, 1959 - Chiapas (southern Mexico) to northern Nicaragua.
costaricensis Ridgway, 1874 - South-western Costa Rica to northern Colombia and western Ecuador.
fumosus Nelson, 1898 - Tres Marias Is, off west-central Mexico.
socorroensis Nelson, 1898 - Socorro I (Revillagigedo Is), off western Mexico.