Blood Hawks are fierce avians that have developed a taste for human flesh. Similar in most ways to standard hawks, blood hawks will hunt down and persistantly, aggressively attempt to kill any humans that may happen into their territory when they are feeding.
Combat
Blood hawks inflict terrible wounds with low swoops, scratching, clawing, biting, and then moving away quickly, before an attack can be mounted. The wounds they leave bleed profusely, bringing a slow, gradual death to those they wound. What's more, they hunt in packs, and are patient enough to attack only when given the advantage.
Ecology
Environment
Blood hawks dwell in forests, hills, mountains and plains.
Typical physical characteristics
Blood hawks closely resemble normal hawks, but stronger and more aggressive, and with a love for the taste of human flesh. All but the tip of their beak, and a small area around their eye, is orange and bare.
Alignment
Blood hawks are essentially just ferocious wild animals, and are neutral or unaligned in alignment.
Society
Blood hawks are either solitary, or travel in murders of 3 to 12 individuals.
Publication history
AD&D 1st edition
The blood hawk first appeared in Fiend Folio (1e) (1981), p.15.
The creature is mentioned in the adventure modules I7 Baltron's Beacon (1985) and N3 Destiny of Kings (1e) (1986), where they are kept as pets; and The Great Bugbear Hunt (1986), UK3 The Gauntlet (1984), and UK5 Eye of the Serpent (1984) where they appear in nature.
The blood hawk appears in Wyrmsmere by Christopher Perkins, Dragon Annual 1 (1996); and A Hitch in Time, Dungeon #24 (Jul/Aug 1990), by Willie Walsh.
AD&D 2nd edition
The blood hawk appears in the Monstrous Compendium Volume Two (1989), under "hawk", and in the Monstrous Manual (1993), under "Bird".
Blood hawks appear in such adventure modules as WG11 Puppets (1989), Destiny of Kings (2e) (1998), and Night Below (1995).
MC13 Monstrous Compendium: Al-Qadim Appendix (1992) notes that the blood hawk would be appropriate for a campaign set in the Al-Qadim setting.
The blood hawk apepars in The Lady of the Mists, Dungeon #42 (Jul/Aug 1993) and Fraggart's Contraption, Dungeon #47 (May/Jun 1994).
An unrelated creature by the name of the Bloodhawk appears in Diablo II: The Awakening (2000), an AD&D adventure module based on the popular video game RPG Diablo II. Four types include the black raptor, bloodhawk, cloud stalker, foul crow.
D&D 3rd edition
The blood hawk appears in the Fiend Folio (3e) (2003), p.22-23, where it is a small magical beast. Frostburn (2004), p.199, notes that players who do not possess the Fiend Folio can substitute a hawk for its stats.
Blood hawks appear in The Distraction, Dungeon #145 (Apr 2007) and Shadows of Spinecastle, Dungeon #148 (Jul 2007).
D&D 4th edition
The blood hawk appears in Monster Manual 2 (4e) (2009), p.142, under "hawk". It is a level 1 skirmisher and a small natural beast.
The blood hawk sentinel, a level 6 skirmisher, appears in Dungeon #169 (Aug 2009).
D&D 5th edition
The blood hawk appears in the Monster Manual (5e) (2014), p.319, in Appendix A: Miscellaneous creatures. It is an unaligned small beast.
Blood hawks appear in the adventure modules Princes of the Apocalypse (2015), Ghosts of Saltmarsh (2019), Storm King's Thunder (2016), and The Tortle Package (2017).
Apocryphal sources
The third-party Tome of Horrors lists the blood hawk as an aberration. Ultimate Monsters lists them as tiny size.