We Have Baby Red-Tails!!!

Some amazing pictures from this guy. There are several nests around Manhattan, where different pairs are sitting on eggs. Some of them are beginning to hatch now. There's one in Riverside Park, and it turns out this pair has three!!!

Some of these red-tails may be related to Pale Male, since he's had 23 offspring over the past 16 years, and some of them may come back to NY.

Scroll down and you'll see 3 little fuzzy white heads. The mama is such a good mama, and so attentive, feeding them.

It's so amazing to me that we have this going on in NYC!!

http://urbanhawks.blogs.com/

Wow.

I just went up to the nest on my run (about a mile and a half from my apartment). I spent waaaaaay too much time there, and now will be late for work.

The mama was sitting on the edge of the nest (it's in a tree over an entry ramp to a highway - very scary to me), and then she flew right over me to another tree. I swear, she was so close I could have reached up and touched her. She broke off a leafy branch, flew back to the nest and tamped it down, then did the same thing. Then the male flew over me with a mouse in his beak, and landed on the nest. Breakfast!!

He then flew to another tree, and the mama started feeding the little ones. I couldn't see the little stinkers, because they're too deep in the nest and I didn't have binoculars, but she was definitely doing feeding activity, tearing off pieces and reaching down into the nest.

It's so fascinating to me! Several people stopped and watched. They're so close!

I wish I had a good camera.

That's wonderful! Our local news did a story last week on a man in a downtown (Dallas) office building who has redtails nesting on the ledge outside his window, and the footage was just spectacular.

We live on a greenbelt created by a line of those giant power cable towers, and there are redtailed hawks nesting on one of the towers just behind our house. We get to see them all the time, but rarely from close enough to really appreciate them...

It's amazing to me how these wild birds have adapted to urban living! Nests in cable towers, of all things!

There's one nest in upper Manhattan at the Cathedral of St. John The Divine. It's a huge gothic cathedral, and this pair have built their nest on a statue of, I think, a saint. Their nest looks like it's being held in the uplifting hand of the saint!

Ooh, how neat. Thanks for posting it.

Redtails are cool birds. We live in an area where they are very common, and I see multiples of them every single day. They are perched on top of fences, trees and utility poles along the road and always on the hunt for a meal. Unlike some of the other hawks in the area, they rarely get in spats with other birds, although I'll see them raiding smaller bird's nests occassionally. Nighthawks around here get into aerial battles with other birds and that's always interesting to watch.

I take them for granted and I'm very glad that you pointed out that they aren't very established elsewhere. Makes me appreciate them again.

Oh, I love nighthawks! When we were stationed in Oklahoma when I was a kid, we saw them all the time. You know the white spots under their wings when they fly? My father used to call them "landing lights."

How very cool! Though I have to say, I was a little dissapointed to discover that you WEREN'T talking about red tail boa constrictors.

Originally Posted by twstychik

How very cool! Though I have to say, I was a little dissapointed to discover that you WEREN'T talking about red tail boa constrictors.

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Although, now I'm thinking -

Who would win in a fight?

Redtail hawks vs. red tail boa constrictors.

Originally Posted by nanner

Although, now I'm thinking -

Who would win in a fight?

Redtail hawks vs. red tail boa constrictors.

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Redtail hawks are fairly whimpy in the grander scheme of things. It wouldn't have a chance! at the thought.

Originally Posted by Momofmany

Redtail hawks are fairly whimpy in the grander scheme of things. It wouldn't have a chance!

at the thought.

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Yup.....so we have to hope they never meet.

Originally Posted by nanner

Yup.....so we have to hope they never meet.

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And fortunately they won't since the boas are indeginous to Colombia.

We have a lot of red tail hawks and eagles where I live in Nebraska. I see them all the time! They are so cool!

I love the babies' little fuzzy white heads.

I'm thinking they'll be showing above the rim of the nest soon, so I'll probably head up there with binoculars in a few days.

Of course, as Honda motorcycles discovered to its chagrin, the "nighthawk" isn't a hawk at all, but a member of the goatsucker family.