Designing Sustainable Landscapes: Representative Species Model: Red-shouldered Hawk (Buteo lineatus)

Red-shouldered hawk was selected as a representative species for the Designing Sustainable Landscapes project of the North Atlantic LCC (https://scholarworks.umass.edu/designing_sustainable_landscapes/). The habitat clusters (ecological systems) and associated wildlife species that it represents generally consist of moist hardwood and mixed forests and includes Appalachian northern hardwood forests, Southern and Central Appalachian cove forests, and Southern Atlantic coastal plain and piedmont forests. The Landscape Capability (LC) index integrates habitat capability and climate suitability into a single index that reflects the relative capacity of a site to support the species.