A red-shouldered hawk watching from above (photo by Mark Moschell via Flickr Creative Commons license)

8 November 2026

Last month the Southwest Virginia Wildlife Center in Roanoke reported they have an adult female red-shouldered hawk (Buteo lineatus) in their care who was brought in because she was grounded. It took a while to figure out why because she’s healthy and uninjured. She simply couldn’t fly because she weighed too much.

The typical weight for a female red-shouldered hawk is 700g but this lady was 910g, about 25% heavier than normal. She’s been on a slimming diet and is only a couple of weeks away from a successful release, but before she goes it’s important to know how she got herself into trouble.

Southwest Virginia Wildlife Center asked around and discovered that, before the hawk was grounded, nearby free-range chicken owners had mysteriously lost chickens without a trace. The combination of easy prey and the hawk’s relentless hunting instinct spelled trouble for all concerned. While the hawk is still in rehab, chicken owners have time to prepare a safer setup for their birds.

Read more at Southwest Virginia Wildlife Center’s Facebook post embedded below. And thanks to Chad who told me about this story at CBC: This hawk gobbled up neighbourhood chickens until she got too fat to fly.

p.s. The slim red-shouldered hawk at top is not the rehab female.