Category Archives: Birds of Prey

Broad-winged Spectacle

Birds of Prey, Migration

According to migration statistics from Hawkcount.org, the bulk of broad-winged hawk migration passed through Pennsylvania in mid-September with one last pulse last Tuesday.

Most of them followed Kittatinny Ridge, the easternmost spine of the Appalachian Mountains where Hawk Mountain Sanctuary is located.  Here are the three highest broad-winged counts at Hawk Mountain this month:

  • Sept 13 — 1,572
  • Sept 17 — 2,813
  • Sept 19 — 1,701

What’s unusual about broad-wings is that they travel in flocks (most raptors don’t) and they watch each other for flight cues.  If one hawk finds a thermal with good lift, others fly over and rise on it as well.  Soon they form a “kettle” of hawks stirring round and round in the rising air.  As each one  reaches sufficient altitude it sets its wings and glides southward to find the next thermal.

After the broad-wings leave Pennsylvania they make their way to the Texas Gulf Coast and follow the eastern edge of the Gulf of Mexico on their way to their wintering grounds in South America.  By the time they pass Veracruz, Mexico, all the broad-wings of North America are concentrated in a narrow corridor.  Their numbers at Veracruz are astonishing, as shown in their three highest counts this month and in the video above.

  • Sept 23 — 136,376
  • Sept 24 — 128,272
  • Sept 22 —  68,724

I tried to imagine 136,000 hawks in my Pittsburgh neighborhood and my first thought was, “There isn’t enough food here for 136,000 hawks!”

Broad-winged hawks eat small mammals, reptiles, amphibians, large insects and songbirds.  Right now they’re traveling with millions of dragonflies and songbirds who are also on migration.

That’s why they migrate in September.  That’s why there’s a spectacle of broad-winged hawks.

(video from Veracruz Hawkwatch on YouTube)

Fledge Watch in Finland

Beyond Bounds, Birds of Prey

video from EagleOwl321 in YouTube

16 September 2011

“City eagle-owl-boy’s flight tour”

Peregrine fans know the excitement of waiting and watching for a nestling to make its first flight.  In Helsinki, Finland last April fans of the Eurasian eagle owl experienced the same excitement and a successful rescue.

The Eurasian eagle owl (Bubo bubo or Huuhkaja in Finnish), ranges from Norway to China and is similar to our great horned owl though much larger.  The eagle owl’s wingspan is 4.5 to 6.5 feet and it weighs 3.3 to 10 pounds (females are largest) compared to a 5 ft wingspan and average 3.1-pound weight for our great horned owl.  These birds are huge!

Until recently eagle owls lived only in the countryside in Finland but in 2005 the burgeoning rabbit population attracted them to Helsinki.  Slowly their numbers increased but there was no nest in the city until a pair chose the roof of the Forum Shopping center this spring, a site easily monitored from the building across the street.   Everyone was excited to see the Helsinki city nest because the eagle owl is a national sports symbol in Finland(*).

By the 20th of April the nestlings were roaming the roof and ready to fledge.  One of them attempted a short airborne hop but he miscalculated and it became his first city tour, complete with a rescue by the fire department from the top of the “Southern Fried Chicken” sign where you see him perched above.

The video is a compilation of his adventure from the roof to the rescue net.  I love how the fireman waves at him and points to the sky as if to say, “Look up there.  Don’t look at my net.”

The owlet was returned to his nest and later fledged successfully.

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(*) National sports symbol:  Finland’s soccer team has been nicknamed the “Eurasian Eagle Owls” ever since 6 June 2007 when an eagle owl landed on the field during a Euro 2008 Finland-vs-Belgium qualifying match at Helsinki Olympic Stadium. The game was suspended during the eagle owl’s visit and the crowd cheered “Huuhkaja!”   Finland won the game 2-0.  The owl was nicknamed Bubi and “Helsinki Citizen of the Year.”   See a video of his game-time visit here.  (Bubi is not one of the parents of this owlet; Bubi’s territory is at the stadium.)

(video of Eurasian eagle-owl fledging from YouTube)

A Good Time to be a Bald Eagle

Birds of Prey, Books & Events


Just in time for the Fourth of July, the Game Commission reports that our national bird is doing quite well in Pennsylvania. 

There are now 203 nesting pairs in the state including, for the first time, a successful nest in Allegheny County.   That eaglet is predicted to fledge this weekend from his home near Dashields Dam.

This is great news since the time 30 years ago when eagles were endangered due to DDT.  

If you want to see eagles today you have a lot more places to choose from.  You can always see them at Pymantuning and now they breed along the Allegheny and Clarion Rivers.  (Here’s a county-by-county nesting map.)

Take a lawn chair or a kayak, maybe do some fishing to pass the time.  If you’re in good eagle habitat, both you and the eagle will catch a fish.

Happy Fourth!

(photo by Kim Steininger)

Performing a Public Service

Birds of Prey, Schenley Park


As disappointed as I am that the CMU red-tailed hawks have been raiding bird nests in Schenley Park, there’s another item on their menu that makes me happy to see them patrolling Oakland.

In early May, Lisa Zirngibl saw a red-tailed hawk eating breakfast on a ledge at Cyert Hall.   (This is the female of the pair; I can tell by her pale head.)

One glance at the tail of her prey tells me this bird is performing a public service.

Can you guess what she’s eating?

I hope she catches a lot of these!

(photo by Lisa Zirngibl)

I Was Just Leaving!

Birds of Prey, Peregrines


Sometimes I see the best birds when I’m looking for peregrines.

Last week I spent every lunch hour looking for the juvenile peregrines from Pitt.  I walked a big loop and checked St. Paul’s Cathedral, Webster Hall, Heinz Chapel, the Cathedral of Learning and the tall buildings to the west but I could never find all four juveniles at the same time — only two.

I’m not surprised.

By now the young peregrines fly well and are becoming independent.  They visit places far from the nest, pursue their parents whenever they show up, and play half-hearted aerial games with each other when they get bored. 

Dorothy and E2 are avoiding them by staying away from the Cathedral of Learning.  It’s very quiet in Oakland.

On the other hand…

On Friday I saw a juvenile peregrine on St. Paul’s steeple as I began my lunchtime loop.  The next time I looked he was gone.  The third time I glanced up a large raptor was flying toward the steeples. 

A red-tailed hawk?  No.  An immature bald eagle!

He circled up over Craig Street and by the time I passed St. Paul’s he was very high up, almost a speck in the sky.  Then a smaller, faster, fiercer speck attacked him!

A highly skilled, very territorial peregrine falcon repeatedly dove on the eagle with talons bared.  The eagle was forced down and away to the east.  He looked as if he was saying, “Sorry!  I was just leaving!”

Good job, E2!  Still keeping the area safe for his offspring.

(photo by Steve Gosser)

Other Birds Are Learning Too

Bird Behavior, Birds of Prey


Peregrine falcon chicks and baby robins aren’t the only ones learning how to fly right now. 

This year’s “baby” red-tailed hawks are learning too.   They’re the same size as their parents but they’re clumsy fliers and often have trouble landing.

Even when they fly well enough to follow their parents they don’t know how to hunt.  In this they have a lot in common with the young peregrines at Pitt. 

How to get a meal?  Ask mom and dad!   Make sure they know you’re hungry!  Make sure they notice you!

The juveniles of both species spread and wave their wings to attract their parents’ attention.    “Look at me!  I’m starving!”

And they whine a lot!  Young red-tails and peregrines are both so loud that people often think they’re hurt.  On Tuesday at Pitt the whining of just one peregrine chick on a 32nd floor ledge of the Cathedral of Learning was so loud I could hear it a quarter of a mile away on Craig Street!

Immature red-tails easily attract human attention even when they can hunt on their own.  One summer I saw a young red-tail whining while he was hunting.  He perched on a fence and whined at a mouse in the grass while he waited for the opportunity to pounce on it.  The mouse escaped, of course.

Don’t be surprised if you see and hear young red-tailed hawks in the next month or two.  Neil Gerjouy found this one waving his wings in Point Breeze last summer. 

(photo by Neil Gerjuoy)

Don’t Mess With Me

Birds of Prey, Nesting & Courtship


Great horned owls are very versatile, the most widely distributed owl in the western hemisphere.  They range from Alaska to Tierra del Fuego and are found in forests, prairies, mountains and deserts, though they avoid the extremes of dense rainforest, hard desert and high Arctic tundra.

Adult great horned owls have no predators — not even humans will mess with them — but the babies are vulnerable.

Here are two baby owls just a couple of weeks younger than the Pennsylvania pair I featured on May 2.  Steve Valasek found them near his home in New Mexico.  Notice that they’re paler than their Pennsylvania relatives, a characteristic of southwestern great horned owls.

These two appear to be alone and one of them is telling Steve to back off.  

Look at those eyebrows! 

But just in case the stare doesn’t work, step back a bit and you’ll see who’s watching nearby!

Don’t mess with me!

(photos by Steve Valasek)

Speaking of Babies

Birds of Prey


If you haven’t seen this photo that Steve Gosser posted on his Facebook page, here’s an “Awwwwww” moment. 

This is a pair of great-horned owl chicks that Steve, Cris Hamilton and Bobby Greene saw in Harrison Hills on Saturday.

Great horned owls nest earlier than any other bird in western Pennsylvania.  As a result, the young can walk away from the nest by the first of May.  They can’t fly yet.  They’re in the “branching” phase, similar to ledge-walking in young peregrines.

Cute as these two look, don’t mess with them.  Their parents are nearby, watching, and will attack if you threaten their young.

(photo by Steve Gosser)