Category Archives: Birds of Prey

I Don’t Care How Big You Are

Bird Behavior, Birds of Prey
Re-tailed hawk tries to ignore bird that is harassing him, June 2012 (photo by Tom Merriman)

In June I can hear the locations of red-tailed hawks before I see them, not because the hawks are making any noise but because they’re surrounded by crowds of small birds who are shouting at them.

The hawks are huge, the songbirds small, so the birds of prey try to ignore their tormentors and find food — a mouse, a rabbit, an exposed fledgling songbird — but that’s exactly why they attract a crowd.

Tom Merriman found this red-tail in Mount Oliver with his back turned to the shouting. Did it work?

Probably not. It’s mighty hard to hunt by stealth when everyone knows you’re there.  If the songbirds sustain their attack the hawk usually gives up and leaves without catching anything.

Peregrines attack bald eagles.  Robins harass red-tails.  Chickadees chase blue jays. All of them shout, “I don’t care how big you are.  Stay away from my babies!”

p.s. This photo has an imbedded quiz.  Can you identify the small bird harassing the red-tailed hawk? Leave a comment with your answer.

(photo by Tom Merriman)

Meanwhile, Down The Street

Birds of Prey, Schenley Park

This week it’s been “All peregrines, all the time” but falcons aren’t the only birds of prey nesting around Schenley Park.

Down the road on the other side of Phipps Conservatory there’s a red-tailed hawks’ nest with two young birds that soon will fly.  If you’ve walked near the pond under the Panther Hollow Bridge you’ve probably heard their whistle-whine.  “Come feed me!”

In late April they hadn’t hatched yet when I encountered Gregg Diskin with his camera in Schenley Park.  He told me he planned to photograph the nestlings as they matured.

Because their stick-nest is deep it wasn’t possible to see them until they were tall enough to look over the rim.  At first they were fluffy white, just like baby peregrines, but now they’ve grown feathers to match their parents’ coloration. In Gregg’s photo above they’re about halfway there.

At last they are full grown.  When I saw them yesterday they were at the gawky stage —  fully feathered with downy fluff on their heads — and they were whining loudly.  Their voices echo under the bridge.

 

If you’d like to see them, walk the valley under the Panther Hollow Bridge and look up.  But don’t pause on the path where there’s a lot of bird poop.  You don’t want to be in “poot” range.  (Click here to see.)

(photos by Gregory Diskin)

Peregrine versus Bald Eagle … Guess Who Wins

Birds of Prey, Peregrines, Schenley Park

If you live on the coast you probably see bald eagles all the time but here in Pittsburgh it’s astonishing to see one in the city, especially in June, especially at the University of Pittsburgh a mile from the Monongahela River.

So imagine our amazement at the Pitt Peregrine Fledge Watch yesterday when an immature bald eagle appeared over Schenley Plaza riding a thermal.

Everybody had just focused their binoculars on the eagle and I was explaining why it didn’t have a white head and tail (they don’t turn white until the eagle matures at age four to five) when … Bang!  A peregrine came out of nowhere and attacked him.

It was the eagle’s turn to be astonished.  Dorothy zoomed up and dove again. Bang!  “Stay away from my babies!”

The eagle tried to lose altitude to get out of her way but he maneuvered like a C-130 cargo plane versus Dorothy, the fighter jet.

She was relentless, fast and dangerous.  The eagle flipped upside down to show his talons, hoping to fend her off, but he made a mistake.  He kept flying toward the Cathedral of Learning where Dorothy’s three youngsters waited and watched.

Again and again she dove on him, driving him past the Cathedral of Learning toward Downtown.  “Move it, buddy!”

Just before they disappeared she came close for good measure.

A minute passed.

Dorothy returned to the Cathedral of Learning, victorious.

It was all in a day’s work for a mother peregrine falcon.  Go, Dorothy!

(photos by Peter Bell)

Cool Facts About Black Kites

Beyond Bounds, Birds of Prey
Black kite (photo from Wikimedia Commons)

22 May 2012

Did you know these facts about black kites (Milvus migrans)?

  • They live on four continents — Europe, Asia, Africa and Australia — but not in North or South America.
  • Black kites are probably the most numerous raptor in the world.  Wikipedia says there are 6.7 million of them!
  • They eat almost anything: lizards, birds, small mammals and insects.  They even scavenge at garbage dumps.
  • Unlike most raptors black kites form huge flocks, especially in winter.
  • In Australia black kites flock to eat grasshoppers when there’s a grasshopper plague.  Gulls did this in Utah.
  • Black kites are also attracted to smoke and fires because they catch prey escaping the fire.

If you want to see black kites in Pittsburgh, your opportunity is coming soon. The National Aviary’s Sky Deck show features trained black kites who swoop and wheel to catch food in the air.

Sky Deck opens Memorial Day weekend and runs through Labor Day, weather permitting.

(photo of a black kite from Wikimedia Commons. Click on the photo to see the original)

The Best Fisher

Birds of Prey, Water and Shore

Many of us are know that peregrines are great hunters but we don’t often get to see the amazing fishing skills of ospreys.

This video from Arkive.org is certain to impress you.  Just look at the size of that last fish!

And, did you know…?
At the coast osprey nests are often within sight of each other. Like a loosely organized colony, they watch each other to see who returns with a fish and follow the successful hunters out to hunt the same area.

Osprey can even identify the fishes held by others and are more likely to follow a neighbor who returns with a fish that lives in schools. Schooling fish are never alone. There’s more where that came from!

(video from Arkive.org on YouTube)

New Digs?

Birds of Prey

On Monday, Steve Valasek sent me this picture of a burrowing owl near his home in Albuquerque, New Mexico.  Talk about cute!

Burrowing owls (Athene cuniculari) are relatively small.  From beak to tail they’re only as long as an American robin but they’re more than twice as heavy and have double the wingspan.  When you see them you don’t think “size of a robin” but they’re small enough to fall prey to raptors, dogs and cats.

Burrowing owls live in open habitats from western Canada to the tip of South America.  They often nest colonially using burrows made by other animals (prairie dogs, ground squirrels, armadillos).  The burrows are also their safe zones.

The first time I ever saw a burrowing owl was in Boca Raton, Florida in December 1998.  After Christmas we were sitting around the table talking about birds and my sister-in-law said, “We have burrowing owls.”   Yow! A Life Bird!  We drove at dusk to a soccer field at Florida Atlantic University (FAU).  On the edge of the field were orange traffic cones to protect the burrows.  Perched on the fence above the cones were several burrowing owls!

Burrowing owls lived on the land before the University was established and FAU is proud to have them there.  Not only does the University protect the birds but they named their sports team The Owls and their sports arena The Burrow.

Burrowing owls are endangered or threatened in much of the West because of changes in habitat and the eradication of prairie dogs.  To help restore their population, biologists have developed ways to construct safe burrows and carefully place safe perches.  If all goes well, the owls return from migration and discover a beautifully improved home for their families.

Sometimes these methods are used to successfully relocate owls whose land is threatened.  When the owls are settled in their new home I wonder if they put up a sign at the old place.   “We’ve moved to new digs.”

😉

(photo by Steve Valasek)

Feats of Engineering

Birds of Prey, Nesting & Courtship

If you look up at the corner of Fifth and Craig these days it’s hard not to notice a pair of red-tailed hawks swooping around St. Paul Cathedral.

After two weeks of testing other sites the local red-tails have chosen the west steeple of St. Paul for their 2012 nest.

They have a thing for buildings.  Though most red-tailed hawks nest in trees this pair has nested on buildings for years, most notably on the roofs at Central Catholic High School and Carnegie-Mellon Fine Arts.  Their “kids” are often rescued.  I recognize the female by her light brown head and her crazy love for bad nest sites.

Peter Bell couldn’t help but notice this when he stopped by with his camera on Thursday afternoon.  He was looking for peregrines and instead found the hawks yanking branches off nearby trees and carrying them to the steeple.  His photo below shows a hawk standing with sticks (red arrow) on a very narrow ledge — probably too narrow for a red-tail nest.

 

What do Pitt’s peregrines think of this development?  St. Paul is close to Pitt and a favorite hang out of their newly fledged young but so far Dorothy and E2 are unphased.  They know this red-tail pair is harmless.  They’ve  been neighbors for at least five years.

And this is the second time the red-tails have tried to nest at St. Paul.  Last year the experiment failed in a matter of days when strong winds blew the sticks off the steeple.

It will be interesting to see if they can pull off this feat of engineering.

(photo by Peter Bell)

Snowy Owl in Warm Weather

Birds of Prey

We’ve had unseasonably warm weather but it hasn’t prevented a snowy owl from visiting just south of Worthington along SR 3011 in Armstrong County.

First reported by Mark McConaughy on March 14, birders flocked to see the owl who quickly became one of the most photographed birds in western Pennsylvania.

Of the many beautiful photos I couldn’t resist posting Shawn Collin’s picture of the owl yawning from a porch roof yesterday.

Is the heat making the owl sleepy?  Or is he just bored with all this attention?

(photo by Shawn Collins)

Snowy Owl Fights Red-Tailed Hawk

Birds of Prey


While cruising the Internet I found a website by Paul Griffin who photographs birds near his home in Wichita, Kansas.

Just like the rest of the U.S., Kansas has seen an influx of snowy owls this winter.  On February 8 Paul Griffin was watching a snowy owl in Butler County, Kansas when he saw a red-tailed hawk try to take its prey.  This was too much for the snowy.  They began to fight!

To see the video, click here or on the screenshot above to visit Paul Griffin’s website.  Scroll down to the bottom and read the narrative.  Then play the video in Quicktime.  (The video will not be visible if you don’t have Quicktime installed on your computer.   If you have trouble seeing the video, visit Griffin’s “Having Video Problems” web page for more information.)

(image from Snowy Fights Hawk video on Paul Griffin’s Wingedthings website)

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p.s. On the topic of snowy owls fighting, Peter Bell shared this link about a resident Chicago peregrine falcon attacking a snowy owl.

Are You My Mother?

Birds of Prey, Peregrines


Last month I was amazed when an American kestrel and a peregrine falcon both perched on the Cathedral of Learning.  The peregrines usually don’t allow any other species up there.

When I reported the incident on PABIRDS Art McMorris, who manages the PA Game Commission’s peregrine program, responded with an amazing story about the two species.

Seventeen ago peregrines were so rare in Pennsylvania that the Game Commission conducted a reintroduction program in the Allentown area.  Downy nestlings were placed in hack boxes and provided with food until they grew up and flew on their own.  Until they were ready to fledge the open side of the hack box was protected with bars.

Jeff Luzenski managed the hack boxes in Allentown and made sure the young peregrines had everything they needed.  The one thing they didn’t have was a mother… until a female kestrel stepped in.

Art told me what Jeff saw:  “A female American Kestrel frequented one of the boxes, apparently attracted by the begging calls of the young peregrines and the sight of the downy young. She would walk into the box (she could fit through the bars), tear bits of meat from the quail provided for the peregrines, and feed them. The maternal instinct was that strong, and the begging calls and behavior of the young peregrines were that universal!  As the peregrines got older, larger and more rambunctious, the kestrel would stay outside the bars while feeding the young.”

Though kestrels are smaller than peregrines (one quarter their weight) they share a family resemblance because both are falcons.  Apparently the resemblance extends to their cries for food.

I imagine the young peregrines asked her, “Are you my mother?”

She was certainly surprised by their size!

(photo of a female American kestrel by Chuck Tague)