Raptor Bones

Raptors, part of the family Accipitridae, include birds like bald eagles, red-tailed hawks, and various other hawk and kite species. Sometimes, when zooarchaeologists are identifying animals from their bones, it is not always possible to narrow a bone down to a specific species. Instead, it is identified to its closest taxonomic family. This is the case with our raptor bones — they could have come from several different types of birds, but the morphological characteristics are not distinct enough to identify them more specifically.

Raptors are a specific grouping of birds of prey and are found on all continents except Antarctica. Their diets are highly variable, with fruits, other birds, insects, small mammals, snails, reptiles, fish, bats, amphibians, and carrion eaten by different raptor species. A common trait of raptors, regardless of species type, is a flat head and hooked beak. Female raptors are larger than male raptors, and wingspans can range from as small as 20 inches across in the American kestrel (Falco sparverius) to as large as 120 inches across in the Andean condor (Vultur gryphus).

When John Smith first described the region’s native birds, he started with raptors, writing, “Of Birds the Eagle is the greatest devourer. Hawks there be of diverse sorts, as our Falconers called them: Sparrow-hawks, Lanarets [peregrine falcons], Goshawks, Falcons and Ospreyes, but they all prey upon most fish.” Still today, bald eagles and hawks can be seen nesting and eating fish along the seawalls.

Like so many other creatures on and near Jamestown Island, raptors became a food source during the Starving Time, as evidenced by their presence within early fort period archaeological contexts.

19 species from Accipitridae have been recorded in Virginia, with some of the more commonly spotted raptors including red-tailed hawks (Buteo jamaicensis), bald eagles (Haliaeetus leucocephalus), Cooper’s hawk (Accipiter cooperii), and northern harriers (Circus hudsonius).