927 5th Avenue Red-tailed Hawks Archives - Page 12 of 92

February 2, 2019December 18, 2020927 5th Avenue Red-tailed Hawks

Nest Refurbishment on Fifth Avenue

While it’s still winter, Red-tailed Hawks across the region are starting to tidy up their nests and get ready for spring. Around Valentine’s Day pairs of hawks will begin to copulate followed by brooding in mid to late March.

Today, I caught Pale Male and Octavia working on their Fifth Avenue nest. It always seems like each wants to undo what the other has done, but it always works out. Octavia left the nest first, followed by Pale Male about fifteen minutes later. I was able to catch up to Pale Male in one of his favorite roosting trees at dusk.

Pale Male is on the left and Octavia is on the right. Note his smaller size, lighter color and thinner head. Notice her rounder, wider head, darker color, and rounder eyes with a light lower eye ring.

January 27, 2019December 18, 2020927 5th Avenue Red-tailed Hawks

Pale Male

I caught up with Pale Male while exiting the park on Saturday. He was on a Metropolitan Museum of Art security camera on the north side of the building. He only stayed perched long enough to get a few seconds of video.

January 12, 2019December 18, 2020927 5th Avenue Red-tailed Hawks

Pale Male

I haven’t been doing much hawk watching the last few weeks, but ran into Pale Male near the Three Bears statue south of the Met on Friday night. He loves to hunt there at dusk before going off to roost. I didn’t see him catch anything, but he was paying close attention to the rodents coming out for the evening.

December 18, 2018December 22, 2020927 5th Avenue Red-tailed Hawks, Eagles, Falcons, Hawks and Osprey

Two Buteos, Red-shouldered Hawk and Red-tailed Hawk

Today, I caught up with one of two Red-shouldered Hawks that’s been in Central Park. This bird is in the same family, Buteo, as Red-tailed Hawks. We first saw the Red-shouldered Hawk at Turtle Pond. It then went just south of the Obelisk (a.k.a. Cleopatra’s Needle). After about twenty minutes it then went to Cedar Hill before we lost it. In searching for it we found Pale Male, America’s most famous Red-tailed Hawk. I’ve included him in the pictures so, you can compare these two species from the same family.

November 9, 2018December 18, 2020927 5th Avenue Red-tailed Hawks

Fifth Avenue Nest and Young Hawk At 78th

Hawks don’t spend much time on their nests outside of breading season, but they do make visits like one of the Fifth Avenue hawks did today. Later in the day, I saw a young hawk at 78th and Fifth on a communications dish above the French cultural center. It will be interesting to see how long it takes Pale Male and Octavia to kick the youngster out.

October 13, 2018December 19, 2020927 5th Avenue Red-tailed Hawks

Octavia on the Met

I first spotted Octavia (Pale Male’s mate) on top of one of Fifth Avenue’s ugliest buildings this afternoon, 1001 Fifth Avenue, “designed” if you can call it that, by the firm of Johnson/Burgee. She had the good taste to move to the Met’s SE corner, and then the NE corner before I lost her as she flew around 86th Street and the East Drive at dusk. I think she might have a roost somewhere a few blocks north of the Met.