Hawks are the birds you see wheeling overhead almost anywhere Skyrim has open sky. They never attack, not even after you shoot at them, so the only danger they pose is to your arrow supply: hawk hunting has a reputation among veteran marksmen as one of the hardest hunting sports in the province. Alchemists still bother, because a downed hawk gives up Hawk Beak and Hawk Feathers.
Where to find them
- Solitude – a large number of hawks circle the city, which makes it an excellent hunting ground, especially down at the docks and around the East Empire Company Warehouse.
- Bloated Man’s Grotto – two hawk nests sit on top of the central rock formation.
- Hearthfire homes – each finished manor, such as Lakeview Manor, Windstad Manor and Heljarchen Hall, has a hawk nest on its roof.
- Random nests – hawk nests can also appear at random in every hold of Skyrim.
If you wait near a nest, sooner or later a hawk will come down and land on it, which is by far the easiest moment to take a shot.
How hawks actually work
Hawks are not creatures in the usual sense. The game treats them as animated objects that fly along fixed paths, much like it treats loose bones or movable rocks. When something that can push such objects strikes a hawk, the flying object is removed and a lootable ragdoll that looks like the bird drops in its place. That is why a dead hawk sometimes does not fall exactly where you hit it, and it explains several other quirks:
- Their hitbox is larger than the bird itself, so a near miss often still counts as a hit.
- Anything that physically moves them can kill them. Shouting Kyne’s Peace or casting Harmony knocks them down without angering guards or townsfolk, and one Kyne’s Peace at the East Empire Company Warehouse can drop around a dozen.
- The Wabbajack does not produce random effects on a hawk; it simply kills it.
- Hawks cannot be raised with Conjuration reanimation spells, and they are among the few animals in Skyrim that cannot be soul trapped.
- A landed hawk can be jumped on and “ridden”, though this is a physics trick rather than a feature and can easily end in a fatal fall.
Related creatures
With Dawnguard installed, an undead cousin, the Bone Hawk, can be seen flying over Castle Volkihar.
