Octavia made a trip to the 927 Fifth Avenue nest late this afternoon. She brought a branch with her and did some arranging. Other bird watchers have seen her with another hawk on the nest. I suspect that she’s just going through the motions and won’t be nesting this year. I would love to be wrong, but I think she’s done with raising anymore hawks.
Some updates:
I’ve been asked repeatedly to give my opinion about whether the hawk that died this past week was the original Pale Male or a replacement. In many ways it doesn’t matter. The benefits of having a hawk nest so accessible to New Yorkers is the same, regardless of how many hawks were using it.
But folks keep asking me to comment, so I’ll do my best to give my opinion. We can’t know for sure if the hawk that died was the original Pale Male. He wasn’t banded and didn’t have any truly unique field marks. So, we must look at the information at hand, and then each of us must come to their own conclusion.
Corey Finger wrote a blog post in February of 2015, “Pale Male is Dead: Long Live Pale Male!” In it he questioned if the then current Pale Male was the original Pale Male. He made some good arguments, but also had some flawed logic, especially when he quoted a description of Pale Male from Marie Winn’s book, which I don’t think should have been used as a definitive source.
I wrote about Corey’s post after it came out, here, “Corey Finger’s Blog Post”.
After I wrote that post, I took time to talk to “old timers”, who had watched Pale Male for a longer period than I had. I started watching Pale Male in 2005, years after he made his home in Central Park. The “old timers” provided old photographs, from as early as 1995 when Pale Male had his first offspring at 927 Fifth Avenue, that match photographs from the recent years.
They also introduced an argument that Corey Finger hadn’t considered, which was that the consistent behavior of the male at 927 Fifth Avenue over the last 28 years, should be included in the debate. They pointed out that when any of Pale Male’s mates had died, the replacements had very different habits, such as new perches and roosting locations.
The individuals who had watched Pale Male longer that I had, make a strong case that the individual that died last week was the original Pale Male. They can show that not only was his appearance consistent from year to year but can also show the male’s behavior such as his favorite perches and roost sites were consistent.
The nest failures of 2019 and 2020, the failure to nest in 2021-2023, and the necropsy which detailed an older hawk dying of renal failure, also help support the case that hawk that died last week was the original Pale Male.
There is room for doubt, however. I can’t find good documentation to confirm that the hawk that arrived in 1991 was the same hawk that began nesting in 1995. Pale Male’s markings aren’t that unique for an east coast hawk. Over the years, we’ve seen many hawks come through the park that are even lighter in color. So, a swap in the early days would have been possible.
In Marie Winn’s book, Pale Male arrived in November of 1991, but didn’t have any offspring until 1995. The early photographs I’ve seen are from the years after he started nesting. It’s possible that that Pale Male might not be the hawk that arrived in 1991, but a hawk that arrived later. This would make the hawk that just died last week a bit younger, but the same one everyone watched nesting on Fifth Avenue.
Others have brought up arguments, which should be evaluated before reaching a conclusion:
These arguments certainly raise doubts, but don’t provide definitive proof that there were two hawks. As Corey Finger said in his post, there was no dead body.
Since there is no definitive answer to the question, each person will need to draw their own conclusion.
I missed Pale Male’s early days in the park. There are only a handful of birders left who have followed him since he arrived in the park. I know most of them and they all are convinced Pale Male was still the original bird that arrived years ago based on his looks and behavior.
So, I’ll go with their opinion that it there was just one Pale Male. However, I do respect anyone who feels there are too many open questions, to justify the position that there was only one male.
Regardless of which side you take on this issue, the hawks who nested at 927 Fifth Avenue brought joy to the Upper East Side, and had a huge impact on the community.
(Often when discussing this question, folks ask if the hawk that died last week could have been a descendent of Pale Male. That’s almost impossible for two reasons. Firstly, natal dispersal (how far offspring wonder from their parents) is incredibly far for Red-tailed Hawks, up to 1,000 miles. Secondly, the female of the pair is unlikely to die at the same time as the male, and won’t be mating with her own offspring.)
The crowd that watched Pale Male, had an expression, “the regulars”. It meant the individuals who spent time day after day watching Pale Male, his mates and their offspring. This hard core group of “regulars” kept track of the hawks throughout the year. Over the years, this group become smaller as the nest became inactive and old timers passed away or moved out of New York.
Over the last three days, many of “the regulars” who are still with us, visited the hawk bench and remembered Pale Male. I’ve been by the bench twice and swapped stories and memories with some of the other “regulars”.
While we’ve been at the hawk bench, we’ve already seen Octavia, Pale Male’s last mate begin the next chapter in her life. On Wednesday, we saw her with other hawks. Octavia may already have found a new mate, possibly a young male. Hawks can quickly find a new mate and this might be the case here.
We’ll know for sure over the next few weeks.
It may be too late in the year for Octavia to nest this year. But it will be interesting to see if with a new mate, they rebuild the 927 Fifth Avenue nest or relocate it to a new location. We might not know until next year.
We also don’t know if Octavia is still able to have offspring. It was unclear if Pale Male was the reason they hadn’t brooded over the last few years. This is the second open question.
My hope is that we have offspring next year, using the old nest location. I suspect this is the hope of many of the other “regulars”.
Bobby Horvath, reported last night the news on the WINORR Facebook page the passing of Pale Male, the 33 year old Red-tailed Hawk who brought so much joy to New Yorkers over the years.
His nesting with multiple partners at 927 Fifth Avenue, gave thousands of New Yorker’s a front row seat to watch and study the behavior of an incredible species. He taught New Yorker’s that you didn’t need to go to a national park to watch nature, but that you just had to walk a few blocks.
A reporter left a voice mail for me this morning asking me what Pale Male’s legacy was, a very tough question.
I think his biggest legacy is that he taught New Yorkers, that despite man’s efforts to control the landscape of the city, nature still thrives here and needs to be respected and nurtured. For New York City birds, this means nests need to be protected, poisons controlled, buildings built with bird friendly designs, glass and lighting, and funding provided for Wildlife Rehabilitators.
Pale Male inspired hundreds of New Yorker’s to become conservationists, and to work to protect wildlife not only in rural areas, but in their own zip codes. That work lives on today, with vibrant organizations such as New York City Audubon, the Wild Bird Fund and WINORR.
If you want to remember Pale Male, respect his legacy by supporting the efforts of these organizations.
It’s September, so I wasn’t surprised to see Pale Male eating in his favorite fall tree eating a bird. The tree is NW of the Polish Statue.
