Yes, Richard, they do. I've seen quite a few red-tails on road-killed deer, especially when the snow has been deep for a length of time as it has been this winter.

Yes they will eat road kill for the reason NJTea mentioned and also if they are imm that are having trouble hunting and are hungry. usually seeing a hawk munching on a flattened possum in the summer is not a good sign for the longevity of the hawk.

Yup - they certainly do. Several times - particularly when we've had deep ice-crusted snow - I've seen both Red-Tail & Red-Shoulder hawks scavenging roadside deer carcasses.

It's the same with the Red Fox & Coyote around here (I'm in VA). While they prefer "live", when it comes to survival, there's not much they'll turn down.

"when it comes to survival, there's not much they'll turn down"
I am having a "Crocodile Dundee" moment: 'It tastes like **** but you can live on it.'

NJTea: I live in zone 7 Maryland, and we haven't had any great amount of snow here, this Winter. Nevertheless, from my experience, just about any raptor will eat roadkill when hungry--at any time of year. Fresh killed roadkill is just an easy meal. To cite a few observances of mine: Traveling from Los Angeles to San Diego in the wee hours of the morning (about 30 years ago), in the middle of Summer, I rounded a bend on the freeway approaching San Diego, just after daybreak, and almost hit a Golden Eagle as it flew off a squashed Jackrabbit in the middle of a southbound lane. (I might also add that 30 minutes prior, I had to brake for about 6 Mexican (obviously illegal) aliens running across the freeway in front of me, right before dawn--not an uncommon sight in that area, in those days.) A few years ago, on a country road in Virginia in early Spring, I noticed in a powerline right-of-way, about 30 yards from the road, a Buzzard (Turkey Vulture) eating on a dead Cottontail Rabbit, while a Red Tail Hawk and a Crow, waited no more than 15-20 feet away, for their turn. I have no idea if the Hawk had killed the rabbit there, or it was struck by a car on the road and dragged itself there. It was the most unusual sight--for me--as I had never seen 3 different predatory birds (albeit, one, a scavenger) at a single rabbit carcass, in my life. (The following not about road-kill, but about gun-kill): A farmer friend in Virginia has a dove-hunt at his farm each year, on the first day of Dove season (which I believe is September 1), and invites about 40 of his friends to participate. Wheat or oats or rye, etc., are bush-hogged (cut) a week before the season, and the grain scattered, usually where power lines cross the field (a natural flyway for doves). Doves come to this scattered grain, and are shot by camouflaged hunters situated around the edges of the fields. Though the hunters attempt to find all the birds they shoot (they cook and eat the breasts), they invariably don't find them all. I have seen hawks--varying in size from Kestrals (though usually larger) to Red Tails--hovering, then landing on, or near the dead doves, and eating them--many times while the hunters are still shooting. As dangerous a situation as it is for them, It's just too easy a meal to pass up. I could quote any number of other examples of raptors on road-or-otherwise-killed animals; but I must say
that I don't believe I have seen one on an animal as large as a deer (except Turkey Vultures). That was a nice sighting, Richard (and others, who have seen such things). As was mentioned, hunger is responsible for strange occurrences.

Richard: I might add that hunger, in our area, is most commonly caused by lack of habitat--and loss of habitat caused by development. Farms and woodlands are being gobbled up by developers all over suburban Maryland, with great numbers of animals and birds being displaced by the development. There used to be a woods and abandoned farmland across the road from my house, where Barred Owls made the most raucous mating calls in January and February, before nesting in March--for YEARS--but, no more. Houses were built, and their wooded hunting grounds were lost. Pheasants actually nested there, and cock Pheasants could be heard crowing in the Spring, calling hens. No more. Few Hawk screams are heard, anymore, either, as there just isn't enough habitat left to warrant nesting in this area.

Thanks for the confirmation that hawks do eat roadkill. The way the hawk was going at that dead deer, it must have been pretty hungry.

Richard