I’ve been sent hawk photos by two different people this week, asking if the photographed birds were red-tailed hawks. I’m really more into invertebrates and plants than birds these days, but I still remember enough from those earlier, simpler times in my career to be helpful.

People tend to make hawk identification unnecessarily complicated, which is very frustrating for everyone involved. Except the hawks, of course, who know who they are and don’t need you to validate that.

As a public service, I have created a free, one-page, step-by-step identification guide to deciding whether that big feathered thing in the distance is a red-tailed hawk. You’re welcome.