Redtails and hawks in general can carry about 1/3 to 1/2 of their weight. The larger female redtails can weigh about 3 pounds or a bit more and can fly off with one pound or so, a sqirrel. When they kill or find dead animals, such as squirrel road kills, they like to eat it on the ground or carry it a short distance to a low tree limb. That's why this one did not want to get out of the road since they are not good heavy lifters.
There is a video of a cat confronting a hawk on the ground. Eventually the hawk flies away with its prey, but had to drop if about 50 feet away. (I won't link the video since the lying title is click bait, which got this SOB 2 million views.)
Owls, on the other hand, are the heavy lifters. Great Horned Owls that are 3 pounds can supposedly carry 8-9 pounds. Cats and small dogs, look out!
There are all kinds of fake videos of hawks carrying large animals. It won't happen.
Coolest recent hawk video I’ve seen featured a young fox with a rabbit it killed. The fox is trotting through the brush and a hawk swoops in and takes the rabbit away from the young fox. Nature is amazing. I have multiple raptors in my area: owls, red-tailed hawk, kestrels, & others I have yet to ID.
Whaaaaaat? You mean they can’t lift a mountain goat??????
Just kidding...good, post! I never really looked at raptors and ranked them by their pound by pound heavy lifting capability!