Bird
Red-shouldered Hawk
Buteo lineatus
Lives in North Carolina all year and nests here. Found in all 100 counties, across 18 habitats.
- Here
- All year
- Nesting
- Nests here
- Range
- All 100 counties
- Habitats
- 18

At a glance
- Group
- Birds
- Here
- All year
- Nesting
- Nests here
- Range
- All 100 counties
- Habitats
- 18
- Habitat models
- Year-round
Where it lives
The places its habitat model includes. It is not found everywhere a habitat occurs.
Habitats in North Carolina 18
Each habitat page lists the plants and wildlife also found there.
Floodplain and bottomland forests


Streams, rivers and their banks


Open sand of beaches, dunes and the hollows between them.
Depression ponds and limesinks
Shallow ponds in Coastal Plain depressions, such as limesinks and the ponds in some Carolina bays, that rise and fall with the seasons.
Marshes along tidal rivers where the water is fresh but rises and falls with the tide.
Flat, poorly drained uplands and terraces with oaks, sweetgum and sometimes loblolly pine, wet in winter and dry in summer, but neither a floodplain nor a swamp.
Wet, open, peaty mountain wetlands fed by seepage, often with sphagnum moss.
Open, fire-kept longleaf pine stands over grasses and wildflowers on wet to moist sandy soil.
Dense evergreen shrub wetlands and bay forests on wet, acid peat of the Coastal Plain.
Places where groundwater keeps the soil or rock wet, such as seepage slopes and spring runs.

Roadsides, fields and disturbed ground

Borders of forests, clearings and shrubby thickets.
Salt-pruned forests and shrub thickets behind coastal dunes.
Forests on moist but not wet ground, such as rich slopes and ravines.
Tree plantations and managed pine
Planted or intensively managed stands of pine or hardwoods grown for timber; a land use rather than a natural community.
Other habitats in its models (69)
Land cover, or classes with no habitat page in North Carolina. Those recorded in North Carolina first, the rest by region.
Elsewhere in the South (42)
- Atlantic Coastal Plain Southern Maritime Forest Year-round, only within 1,000 m of water.
- Atlantic Coastal Plain Southern Wet Pine Savanna and Flatwoods Year-round.
- Central Florida Herbaceous Seep Year-round.
- Central Florida Pine Flatwoods Year-round, only within 1,000 m of water.
- East Gulf Coastal Plain Dune and Coastal Grassland Year-round.
- East Gulf Coastal Plain Maritime Forest Year-round, only within 1,000 m of water.
- East Gulf Coastal Plain Near-Coast Pine Flatwoods Year-round, only within 1,000 m of water.
- East Gulf Coastal Plain Northern Loess Bluff Forest Year-round, only within 1,000 m of water.
- East Gulf Coastal Plain Northern Mesic Hardwood Forest Year-round, only within 1,000 m of water.
- East Gulf Coastal Plain Savanna and Wet Prairie Year-round.
- East Gulf Coastal Plain Small Stream and River Floodplain Forest Year-round.
- East Gulf Coastal Plain Southern Loblolly-Hardwood Flatwoods Year-round, only within 1,000 m of water.
- East Gulf Coastal Plain Southern Loess Bluff Forest Year-round, only within 1,000 m of water.
- East Gulf Coastal Plain Southern Mesic Slope Forest Year-round, only within 1,000 m of water.
- Florida Big Bend Fresh-Oligohaline Tidal Marsh Year-round.
- Florida Dry Prairie Year-round, only within 1,000 m of water.
- Floridian Highlands Freshwater Marsh Year-round.
- Lower Mississippi River Dune Woodland and Forest Year-round.
- Mississippi River Low Floodplain (Bottomland) Forest Year-round.
- Mississippi River Riparian Forest Year-round.
- Mississippi Sound Salt and Brackish Tidal Marsh Year-round.
- Nashville Basin Limestone Glade Year-round, only within 1,000 m of water.
- South Florida Bayhead Swamp Year-round.
- South Florida Cypress Dome Year-round.
- South Florida Dwarf Cypress Savanna Year-round.
- South Florida Freshwater Slough and Gator Hole Year-round.
- South Florida Hardwood Hammock Year-round.
- South Florida Pine Flatwoods Year-round, only within 1,000 m of water.
- South Florida Pine Rockland Year-round, only within 1,000 m of water.
- South Florida Wet Marl Prairie Year-round.
- South-Central Interior / Upper Coastal Plain Flatwoods Year-round, only within 1,000 m of water.
- South-Central Interior / Upper Coastal Plain Wet Flatwoods Year-round.
- South-Central Interior Mesophytic Forest Year-round, only within 1,000 m of water.
- Southeast Florida Coastal Strand and Maritime Hammock Year-round.
- Southern Coastal Plain Blackwater River Floodplain Forest Year-round.
- Southern Coastal Plain Herbaceous Seepage Bog Year-round.
- Southern Coastal Plain Hydric Hammock Year-round.
- Southern Coastal Plain Nonriverine Basin Swamp Year-round.
- Southern Coastal Plain Nonriverine Cypress Dome Year-round.
- Southern Coastal Plain Seepage Swamp and Baygall Year-round.
- Southwest Florida Coastal Strand and Maritime Hammock Year-round.
- Southwest Florida Dune and Coastal Grassland Year-round.
Northeast (6)
- Appalachian Hemlock-Hardwood Forest Year-round, only within 1,000 m of water.
- Atlantic Coastal Plain Northern Fresh and Oligohaline Tidal Marsh Year-round.
- Atlantic Coastal Plain Northern Maritime Forest Year-round, only within 1,000 m of water.
- Central Appalachian Oak and Pine Forest Year-round, only within 1,000 m of water.
- Northern Atlantic Coastal Plain Basin Swamp and Wet Hardwood Forest Year-round.
- Northern Atlantic Coastal Plain Dune and Swale Year-round.
Land cover and other classes (21)
- Central Appalachian Floodplain - Forest Modifier Year-round.
- Central Appalachian Riparian - Forest Modifier Year-round.
- Developed, Low Intensity Year-round, only within 1,000 m of water.
- East Gulf Coastal Plain Black Belt Calcareous Prairie and Woodland - Herbaceous Modifier Year-round, only within 1,000 m of water.
- East Gulf Coastal Plain Black Belt Calcareous Prairie and Woodland - Woodland Modifier Year-round, only within 1,000 m of water.
- East Gulf Coastal Plain Interior Shortleaf Pine-Oak Forest - Mixed Modifier Year-round, only within 1,000 m of water.
- East Gulf Coastal Plain Jackson Plain Dry Flatwoods - Open Understory Modifier Year-round, only within 1,000 m of water.
- East Gulf Coastal Plain Jackson Prairie and Woodland Year-round, only within 1,000 m of water.
- East Gulf Coastal Plain Large River Floodplain Forest - Forest Modifier Year-round.
- East Gulf Coastal Plain Large River Floodplain Forest - Herbaceous Modifier Year-round.
- East Gulf Coastal Plain Near-Coast Pine Flatwoods - Offsite Hardwood Modifier Year-round, only within 1,000 m of water.
- East Gulf Coastal Plain Near-Coast Pine Flatwoods - Open Understory Modifier Year-round, only within 1,000 m of water.
- East Gulf Coastal Plain Near-Coast Pine Flatwoods - Scrub/Shrub Understory Modifier Year-round, only within 1,000 m of water.
- East Gulf Coastal Plain Southern Depression Pondshore Year-round.
- Eastern Highland Rim Prairie and Barrens - Dry Modifier Year-round, only within 1,000 m of water.
- Harvested Forest - Grass/Forb Regeneration Year-round, only within 1,000 m of water.
- Lower Mississippi River Bottomland Depressions - Forest Modifier Year-round.
- Northeastern Interior Dry Oak Forest - Mixed Modifier Year-round, only within 1,000 m of water.
- South-Central Interior Large Floodplain - Herbaceous Modifier Year-round.
- Southern Piedmont Dry Oak-(Pine) Forest - Mixed Modifier Year-round, only within 1,000 m of water.
- Unconsolidated Shore Year-round.
Seasons in North Carolina
- Year-round: nests here, in all 100 counties.
Also found in its main habitats
Its main habitats in North Carolina, by how much of its habitat model each one is, with the birds most characteristic of each and the plants that grow wild there. Shared habitat, not food.
Red-shouldered Hawk uses many habitats in North Carolina; these are its 3 most characteristic.
Floodplain and bottomland forests
Birds 71
- Lincoln's SparrowMelospiza lincolnii
- Brewer's BlackbirdEuphagus cyanocephalus
- Willow FlycatcherEmpidonax traillii
- AnhingaAnhinga anhinga
- Brown-headed CowbirdMolothrus ater
- Louisiana WaterthrushSeiurus motacilla
- Northern WaterthrushSeiurus noveboracensis
- Yellow-throated WarblerDendroica dominica
- Black-throated Blue WarblerDendroica caerulescens
- Cerulean WarblerDendroica cerulea
- Glossy IbisPlegadis falcinellus
- Great CormorantPhalacrocorax carbo
Plants 367
- Elliott's BlueberryVaccinium elliottii
- Possumhaw HollyIlex decidua
- Cherrybark OakQuercus pagoda
- Shagbark HickoryCarya ovata
- Southern Shagbark HickoryCarya carolinae-septentrionalis
- Wolf's BluegrassPoa wolfii
- Spreading SedgeCarex laxiculmis
- Blunt Broom SedgeCarex tribuloides
- Louisiana SedgeCarex louisianica
- Smooth Hedge-nettleStachys tenuifolia
- Woodland SpurgeEuphorbia obtusata
- Common Cup-plantSilphium perfoliatum
Swamps
Birds 70
- Gull-billed TernGelochelidon nilotica
- Red-breasted NuthatchSitta canadensis
- Brewer's BlackbirdEuphagus cyanocephalus
- RedheadAythya americana
- Tricolored HeronEgretta tricolor
- AnhingaAnhinga anhinga
- Louisiana WaterthrushSeiurus motacilla
- Northern WaterthrushSeiurus noveboracensis
- Red-breasted MerganserMergus serrator
- Ruddy TurnstoneArenaria interpres
- Yellow-throated WarblerDendroica dominica
- Cerulean WarblerDendroica cerulea
Plants 329
- May HawthornCrataegus aestivalis
- Dense-flower SmartweedPersicaria densiflora
- Carolina AshFraxinus caroliniana
- Water HickoryCarya aquatica
- Bent SedgeCarex styloflexa
- Cypress-swamp SedgeCarex joorii
- Dark-green SedgeCarex venusta
- Fringed SedgeCarex crinita
- Ravenfoot SedgeCarex crus-corvi
- Weak Stellate SedgeCarex seorsa
- White-edge SedgeCarex debilis
- Swamp ButtercupRanunculus septentrionalis
Roadsides, fields and disturbed ground
Birds 90
- Cape May WarblerDendroica tigrina
- House SparrowPasser domesticus
- Monk ParakeetMyiopsitta monachus
- Upland SandpiperBartramia longicauda
- DickcisselSpiza americana
- Grasshopper SparrowAmmodramus savannarum
- Rock PigeonColumba livia
- BobolinkDolichonyx oryzivorus
- Horned LarkEremophila alpestris
- House FinchCarpodacus mexicanus
- Vesper SparrowPooecetes gramineus
- Yellow-throated VireoVireo flavifrons
Plants 1314
- Crooked-stem AsterSymphyotrichum prenanthoides
- Canada LettuceLactuca canadensis
- Common HorseweedErigeron canadensis
- Annual FleabaneErigeron annuus
- Oakleaf FleabaneErigeron quercifolius
- Dog-fennelEupatorium capillifolium
- Ivyleaf Morning-gloryIpomoea hederacea
- Carolina Crane's-billGeranium carolinianum
- Common Evening-primroseOenothera biennis
- Cutleaf Evening-primroseOenothera laciniata
- Northern Evening-primroseOenothera parviflora
- Downy Ground-cherryPhysalis pubescens
All of roadsides, fields and disturbed ground in North Carolina
Sources
- USGS Gap Analysis Project habitat models (2001)
- USGS GAP year-round habitat model for Red-shouldered Hawk
- USGS Gap Analysis Project range maps (2001), modeled by watershed; migratory gives no dates
- NatureServe Explorer (CC BY 4.0), habitat names
- US Census TIGER/Line counties
- Names follow the USGS Gap Analysis Project (2001)





























































