Look up. No, seriously. Most of us walk from our cars to the grocery store with our heads down, maybe checking a text or dodging a puddle, completely oblivious to the fact that a Red-tailed Hawk is likely pinning a squirrel with its eyes from a light pole twenty feet away. Ohio isn't just cornfields and industrial hubs. It is a high-stakes aerial battlefield. The variety of Ohio birds of prey is actually staggering when you stop to look at the data. We’ve got everything from the tiny, bug-eating American Kestrel to the massive, fish-snatching Bald Eagle that basically owns the Lake Erie shoreline.
It’s easy to think of these birds as "wilderness" creatures. But they’ve adapted. They’re in your backyard. They are nesting on the skyscrapers in downtown Columbus and hunting in the median of I-71.
The Resurrection of the Ohio Bald Eagle
If you lived in Ohio in 1979, you were lucky to see an eagle. There were only four nesting pairs in the entire state. Four. That’s it. It’s kinda wild to think about how close we came to losing them entirely because of DDT and habitat loss. Honestly, their comeback is one of the greatest biological success stories in the Midwest. By 2024, the Ohio Department of Natural Resources (ODNR) reported over 900 nesting pairs across the state. They are everywhere now.
You’ll find them concentrated near water. The marshes of Ottawa National Wildlife Refuge and Magee Marsh are legendary, but they’ve moved inland too. If there’s a decent-sized river or a reservoir with fish, there’s probably an eagle nearby. They build nests that weigh a ton—literally—and keep adding to them every year. It’s a messy, massive pile of sticks that can eventually collapse the tree if they aren't careful.
I’ve seen them scavenging more than hunting lately. They’re basically glorified vultures when there’s roadkill around. It’s not the most "majestic" thing to see a national symbol fighting a crow over a dead raccoon, but that’s nature. It’s gritty.
The Peregrine Falcon: The Urban Specialist
While eagles like the water, Peregrine Falcons love the concrete. These birds are the fastest animals on the planet. When they go into a "stoop" (a high-speed dive), they can hit speeds over 200 mph. Think about that for a second. That’s faster than a race car, and they’re doing it to slam into a pigeon mid-air.
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Ohio’s Division of Wildlife started a hacking program decades ago to reintroduce them. They chose city skyscrapers because the ledges mimic the cliff sides where falcons naturally nest. Now, cities like Cleveland, Toledo, and Cincinnati have resident pairs. The Rhodes Tower in Columbus has been a famous nesting site for years. They keep the pigeon population in check, which is basically a public service if you’ve ever walked under a bridge in a city.
Those Red-Tailed Hawks You See Everywhere
If you see a large hawk sitting on a fence post along the highway, 99% of the time, it’s a Red-tailed Hawk. They are the blue-collar workers of Ohio birds of prey. They don't need fancy cliffs or pristine lakes. Give them a field and some mice, and they’re happy.
You can identify them by the "belly band"—a streak of dark feathers across their white chest. And despite what Hollywood tells you, they don’t scream like an eagle. Actually, most "eagle" screams you hear in movies are actually dubbed recordings of Red-tailed Hawks because eagles actually sound kinda like squeaky toys. The Red-tail has that classic, rasping keee-aaaaar that sounds like the wild.
They are incredibly territorial. If you see two hawks spiraling together in the sky, they might be courting, or they might be trying to drive each other out of a hunting range. They’re built for soaring, using thermals (rising warm air) to stay aloft for hours without flapping once. It’s efficient. It’s smart.
The Cooper’s Hawk: The Backyard Ninja
This is the bird people usually complain about. If you have a bird feeder and suddenly all the songbirds disappear, a Cooper’s Hawk is likely nearby. Unlike the Red-tail, which likes open spaces, the Cooper’s Hawk is built for maneuvering through thick woods. They have short, rounded wings and long tails that act like rudders.
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They are bird-hunters. They’ll fly low through your neighborhood, zip around a corner, and snatch a mourning dove right off your deck. It’s brutal to watch, but they have to eat too. They’re often confused with the Sharp-shinned Hawk, which looks almost identical but is smaller. A good rule of thumb? If it looks like a "flying cross" with a rounded tail, it’s a Cooper's. If it’s smaller with a squared-off tail, it’s a "Sharpie."
The Secretive Night Shift: Ohio’s Owls
Most people never see our owls, but you’ve definitely heard them. Ohio has a few heavy hitters in the owl world.
- The Great Horned Owl: The "tiger of the air." These things are fearless. They will eat skunks. They don't care about the smell because birds have a terrible sense of smell anyway. They are the earliest nesters in the state, often sitting on eggs in February while there’s still snow on the ground.
- The Barred Owl: These are the ones that ask, "Who cooks for you? Who cooks for you all?" They love the swamps and deep woods of places like the Hocking Hills. They have dark, soulful eyes instead of the yellow eyes you see on most other owls.
- The Eastern Screech-Owl: Don't let the name fool you. They don't really screech; it’s more of a descending whinny. They’re tiny, maybe the size of a pint glass, and they love to hide in hollowed-out tree cavities. You could walk past one every day for a year and never see it because their camouflage is that good.
Misconceptions About Ohio's Raptors
One big thing people get wrong: they think hawks are going to fly off with their Labradors. Look, a Red-tailed Hawk weighs about three pounds. It cannot carry a forty-pound dog. Now, could a Great Horned Owl go after a very small kitten or a teacup Chihuahua? Theoretically, yes. They are powerful. But generally, they’re looking for rodents and rabbits.
Another myth is that they are "varmints" you can shoot if they’re on your property. That is a massive legal mistake. All Ohio birds of prey are protected under the Migratory Bird Treaty Act. Even possessing a single feather you found on the ground is technically a federal offense. The law doesn't play around when it comes to raptors.
The Role of Vultures
We have to talk about the "cleanup crew." Turkey Vultures and Black Vultures are technically raptors, though they don't kill their own food usually. Turkey Vultures have an incredible sense of smell—they can find a carcass from miles away just by catching the scent of decay on the wind.
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Black Vultures are a bit different and, honestly, a bit more aggressive. They’ve been moving further north into Ohio over the last decade. Unlike Turkey Vultures, Black Vultures have been known to occasionally attack live, weak animals (like newborn calves). It's caused some tension with farmers in Southern Ohio. You can tell them apart in flight because Turkey Vultures hold their wings in a "V" shape and wobble, while Black Vultures have white patches just at the tips of their wings and fly more steadily.
Where to Go for the Best Sightings
If you actually want to see these birds in action, you can't just wander aimlessly. You need the right spots.
- The Lake Erie Shoreline: During spring migration, thousands of hawks fly around the lake because they don't like crossing large bodies of open water. The "Biggest Week in American Birding" in Northwest Ohio is a prime time for this.
- Killdeer Plains Wildlife Area: Located in Wyandot County, this is a mecca for wintering raptors. You can see Rough-legged Hawks (which come down from the Arctic) and Short-eared Owls hunting the grasslands at dusk. It’s bleak, cold, and absolutely beautiful.
- The Wilds: In Muskingum County, the open reclaimed mine lands are perfect for Harriers and Golden Eagles (which are rare in Ohio but do show up in winter).
How to Help Ohio's Raptors
The biggest threat to these birds right now isn't hunters; it's lead and rodenticide. When people use rat poison, the mice don't die instantly. They get slow and lethargic. A hawk sees an easy meal, eats the poisoned mouse, and then the hawk gets sick or dies. It’s a chain reaction. If you have a pest problem, try snap traps or sealing your house instead of poison.
Lead is the other big one. Eagles and vultures scavenge gut piles left by deer hunters. If the hunter used lead shot, the birds ingest small fragments and get lead poisoning. It’s a slow, agonizing way for an apex predator to go. Switching to copper ammunition is a simple fix that saves a lot of birds.
Immediate Action Items for Enthusiasts
If you're serious about getting into raptor watching in Ohio, don't just buy a book. Do these three things:
- Download Merlin Bird ID: It’s a free app from Cornell Lab of Ornithology. It has a "Sound ID" feature that is basically Shazam for birds. If something is screaming in the woods, hold your phone up, and it’ll tell you exactly what it is.
- Get 8x42 Binoculars: Don't bother with high-magnification "zoom" binoculars; they’re too shaky. 8x42 is the industry standard for birders—it lets in enough light for dawn/dusk viewing and has a wide enough field of view to catch a bird in flight.
- Check the Ohio Birding Birds listserv: This is where the old-school experts post rare sightings. If a Snowy Owl shows up on a pier in Cleveland, you’ll hear about it there first.
Raptors are a barometer for the health of our environment. When they’re thriving, it means the entire food chain—from the insects to the rodents—is functioning. Seeing a Merlin zip through a park or watching an Osprey dive for a bass in the Scioto River is a reminder that the wild hasn't been completely paved over yet. We share the state with these killers, and honestly, Ohio is much more interesting because of them.
Keep your eyes on the treelines. The more you look, the more you'll realize you're being watched back.