Hawks are omnivores with extremely flexible feeding preferences. What a hawk eats is typically governed by the hawk’s native habitat, the hawk’s species, and the availability of food, but a hawk will eat almost anything.
The red-tailed hawk is the most common species of hawk. These birds of prey are capable of diving at speeds of up to 120 miles per hour, capturing prey with their razor-sharp talons. Red-tailed hawks primarily consume small mammals, such as shrews, mice, squirrels, and moles, but they will sometimes consume cats and small dogs. In addition to ducks, fish, bats, smaller birds, grasshoppers, rabbits, lizards, snakes, and frogs, the hawk’s diet also includes fish, snakes, and lizards. They will also consume dead animals; when they eat, they swallow everything, even bones, and then vomit indigestible portions.
