We had a good sighting of two birds of prey during our US trip, each conveniently sitting in a nearby tree for several minutes.
The first was at Sloss Furnaces in Birmingham Alabama. It looks like a young buzzard in UK parlance, but according to Wikipedia such birds are hawks in the US. And there are a lot of types of hawk. So this is maybe a roadside hawk or a broad winged hawk? Apparently one book says it’s a buzzard!
The second was in the botanical gardens in Memphis Tennessee, and appears to be a red tailed hawk.
It will be apparent that my knowledge and experience of these raptors is minimal. They are usually just small bird-shaped blobs high in the sky!
** See comment by kingbirdgraphica, which gives the correct identification.
I can't believe it! 
Great pictures! The bird in the top two photos appears to be a juvenile Red-tailed Hawk, based on the head pattern, apparent length of the wings and the markings on the tail and underparts. The lower two photos depict an adult Red-shouldered Hawk, known by the black-and-white pattern on the wings, reddish color of the “shoulders”, and the Robin-red color of the chest and belly pattern. Both are common raptors in the southeast USA. These are both the type of bird known as “buzzards” in Britain, but that word has come to mean “vulture” in colloquial American English. 🙂
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Many thanks for the clarification! I’ll put a note in the post referring to your comment.
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