Rough-legged Hawks are active during the day, especially at dawn and dusk. Pale greenish or blue, blotched and streaked with brown. The female spends 3–4 weeks building the nest from materials collected mostly by the male. The lining may include grasses, sedges, small twigs, molted feathers, and fur from prey. It measures 24–35 inches across and 10–24 inches high. The nest is a bulky mass of sticks from willows and other arctic plants, sometimes supplemented with caribou bones. They occasionally nest high in trees or on human-built structures. The pair sometimes reuses a nest or builds a new nest close to an old one. The male chooses the cliffside nest site, usually completely exposed rather than protected by overhangs. They sometimes feed on carrion or steal from other hawks and ravens. They also hunt from elevated perches such as utility poles, trees, fence posts, and haystacks, particularly in winter. The Rough-legged Hawk hunts on the wing either by pursuing prey or by hovering into the wind and dropping down on prey. On their wintering grounds, they eat mostly voles, mice, and shrews. On their arctic breeding grounds they eat mostly small rodents such as lemmings and voles, along with some medium-sized mammals-arctic ground squirrels, young hares, pocket gophers-and birds such as ptarmigan and Lapland Longspurs. They winter across southern Canada and most of the United States-west, central, and northeast-in open country, including prairies, shrubsteppes, semideserts, fields, marshes, bogs, and dunes. In tree-covered areas they hunt over open bogs and other clearings. During years of abundant prey their breeding range extends south into forested taiga. They nest on cliffs and outcroppings in low-lying boreal forest, treeless tundra, uplands, and alpine regions, both inland and coastal. Rough-legged Hawks breed in open country of the arctic, both in North America and Eurasia.
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