On Saturday 17 September, my friends Mary and Bea were walking to the Bloomfield Saturday Market when they couldn’t help but notice a red-tailed hawk (Buteo jamaicensis) hunting on the lawn at Shadyside Hospital. Mary stopped to take his picture.
Perched on the blue sign, I can tell the bird is immature because his tail isn’t rusty red. In early June he was still in the nest. Soon he learned to fly, then to hunt. Now, months later, he can feed himself but he’s not an expert. It takes time and luck to get a meal.
In autumn young red-tails disperse on their first migration and every place they stop is completely new to them. Those that grew up in urban environments are unbothered by traffic and people so they may gravitate to open areas near buildings in search of prey.
This hawk was so focused on hunting that he ignored Mary while she took his picture. Read more about the hawk’s single mindedness in this article from 2009.
p.s. This red-tail may have been attracted to the noise of house sparrows tweeting inside that bright green hedge. There are always lots of them in there, but they shut up as soon as I look so I rarely see one. As far as I know, I’m the only one — other than a hawk — that peers inside that hedge. đ
Two juvenile Cooper’s hawks in Frick Park, 14 July 2022 (photo by Charity Kheshgi)
22 September 2023
Every year young Cooper’s hawks (Accipiter cooperii) fledge in June/July and learn to hunt in July/August. As soon as they’re self sufficient they disperse, and then they start to migrate.
Cooper’s hawks eat birds for a living so they migrate with their prey. Their peak migration continues now through mid October at the Allegheny Front Hawk Watch.
How did they get to this point? Let’s take a look back to August as some young Cooper’s hawks perfect their hunting techniques in New Jersey. It involves a lot of jumping.
The three owls pictured here live in Pittsburgh’s city parks but are hard to find in August. The best time of year to see a great-horned owl, above, is in late winter or early spring. Steve Gosser photographed this one in Frick Park in April 2019.
Though barred owls have nested successfully in Frick Park, I didn’t see any this year. In July 2022 two youngsters ventured further from their parents at dusk, photographed by Charity Kheshgi.
Young barred owls, Frick Park, July 2022 (photo by Charity Kheshgi)
This roost on the main trail in Schenley Park was the best place to find an eastern screech-owl in winter, but it has not been used for several years. Nowadays listen for angry songbirds to tell you about the owls. They told me where to find a young eastern screech-owl in early June.
Eastern screech-owl, Schenley Park, March 2016 (photo by Benjamin Haake)
Last week I mentioned the Eurasian eagle-owl, Flaco, who lives in Central Park, NYC.
Happy 6th month of freedom today to Flaco, the Central Park Eurasian eagle-owl. When I saw him hunt for possibly the first time, I was surprised and glad. He hunts with ease now and I am happy for his continued success and wellbeing! Photo taken recently after midnight.#birdcpppic.twitter.com/RNirtnBjeG
… The Audubon Society predicts that three-quarters of the bald eaglesâ current summer range will become unsuitable for the birds in about 60 years.
âA lot of their breeding is going to shift completely into Canada and Alaska. So the lower 48 is looking less ideal for breeding conditions for the species,â said Brooke Bateman, senior scientist at the National Audubon Society.
At +1.5°C — in the next five+ years — the biggest decrease will be in a swath of the Southeast and Lower Mississippi Valley. This screenshot map of bald eagle climate vulnerability is tiny on purpose so that you’ll view it on the Audubon website. Click here, then scroll down to see the maps for winter/summer.
A global temperature rise of +3.0°C will reduce bald eagle nests in a huge swath of the U.S. from Maryland, Virginia and North Carolina westward to Nebraska and Arkansas. This is unhappy news for Pittsburgh where red indicates a 15% loss of bald eagle nests under the +3.0°C scenario. [Again, view this map on the Audubon website. Click here, then scroll down to see the maps for winter/summer.]
Sadly, climate change will prompt our national bird to move away from home.
Read more about the Audubon climate change report at Yale Climate Connections. See the affect of climate change on the bald eagle’s range in the Audubon Field Guide:
Red-tailed hawk in North Park, Feb 2019 (photo by Steve Gosser)
1 July 2023
Last week while in Tidewater Virginia, I noticed that turkey vultures dominated the airspace. On our way to Pittsburgh yesterday, soaring red-tailed hawks made me feel like “I’m home.”
Red-tailed hawks (Buteo jamaicensis) live quite near us in southwestern Pennsylvania, especially in the city. Here are a few shots of our most common hawk, thanks to local photographers.
Red-tailed hawk in flight, January 2022 (photo by Christopher T)Red-tailed hawk nestling, Frick Park, May 2021 (photo by Charity Kheshgi)Red-tailed hawk family in a nest in Schenley Park, 14 May 2018 (photo by Gregory Diskin)Immature red-tailed hawk on light pole, 2013 (photo by Chuck Tague)Pair of red-tailed hawks on Hammerschlag Hall at CMU, April 2011 (photo by Peter Bell)Immature red-tailed hawk at Pitt Law School window, fall 2019 (photo by Kim Getz)
(photo credits in the captions, click on the links to see the photographers’ websites)
Merlin family at Chatham University, Pittsburgh, PA, July 2022 (photo by Malcolm Kurtz)
25 June 2023
Last year Malcolm Kurtz found the first recorded merlin nest in Allegheny County when he heard them on Chatham University’s campus. They were easy to find because merlins are extremely vocal during the breeding season, especially late June through July when their young beg loudly. If you recognize the sound you may discover merlins nesting near you. In Pennsylvania this is a very big deal and Don Nixon, who tracks Pennsylvania’s merlins, wants to know about it.
Merlins (Falco columbarius) are small, streaky, dark, very fast falcons about the size of pigeons who, after the DDT crash, did not nest in Pennsylvania for over 30 years. When they returned they chose old unmodified crow or hawk nests in conifers in forests, cities, residential areas, school yards, parks, cemeteries, and golf courses.
Don Nixon has seen merlin numbers grow quickly in recent years and writes:
We now have over 100 documented merlin nests across Pennsylvania since 2006.
Nest sites stretch from a repeatedly used area at Promised Land State Park in the Poconos to a golf course in Somerset.
Nests have been reported in 24 of Pennsylvania’s 67 counties.
Counties reporting nests for the first time in 2022 include Allegheny (Malcom’s nest), Blair, Cameron, Clarion, Columbiana and Somerset.Â
This year Lackawanna County is already reporting its first nest.
Don publishes an annual PA merlin map after the breeding season, 2022 shown below. The dots appear clustered because there are few observers.
Pennsylvania merlin nests in 2022 (map from Don Nixon)
Since merlins don’t use the same nest site in consecutive years these dots don’t tell you where to find merlins this year. Instead you’ll have to listen for them. The two most common calls, described by Birds of the World, are:
Ki-Ki-Kee (Kek-Kek-Kek) given in courtship displays, territorial or other aggressive encounters,
Food Begging Whine: a monotonous call, given by female soliciting food transfers from male. Sometimes given after copulation. Also given by nestlings but softer and quicker.
Here are three examples:
Alarm near the nest, Xeno Canto 666137:
Female calling after mating with male, Xeno Canto 642023:
Adults and begging juvenile, Xeno Canto 583041:
If you hear these sounds look for merlins. If you heard them in Pennsylvania, Don Nixon wants to hear from you. Add your own dot to the PA Merlin Map. Contact Don at:
Don Nixon 1009 Green Glen Drive, DuBois, PA 15801 814-661-5944 (cell) pamerlins@gmail.com
Now’s the time to listen for merlins. Maybe you’ll find a nest!
When I began watching peregrine falcons 22 years ago, peregrines were endangered and our smallest falcon, the American kestrel, was doing just fine, but the tables have turned. Peregrines have fully recovered from extinction in eastern North America while kestrels have lost half their population and face an uncertain future. The New York Times described their plight this week in The Mystery of the Vanishing Kestrels: Whatâs Happening to This Flashy Falcon? Can we save this beautiful bird before it’s gone?
American kestrels are versatile birds. At home in grasslands, meadows, deserts, cities and suburbs, they eat grasshoppers, crickets, large flying insects, beetles, lizards, small rodents and small birds.
Kestrels nest in cavities in buildings, trees, cliffs and nestboxes but more than half of their sites are unoccupied now in eastern North America. I’ve seen the decline first hand in Pittsburgh. A decade ago there were two kestrel nests within a few blocks of Downtown’s Third Avenue peregrines. Now there are none.
Dr. John Smallwood, a professor of biology at Montclair State University interviewed in the New York Times article, has monitored 100 kestrel nestboxes in New Jersey for nearly 30 years. The number of occupied nests at his sites peaked at 61 in 2002 and has dropped ever since.
What’s going wrong for kestrels? Are they out-competed for prey? Are they ingesting poison? What’s happening on their wintering grounds? Are insect declines affecting kestrels? Are neonicotinoid pesticides a factor? And what about the bigger questions of habitat and climate change?
Many kestrel experts think itâs a combination of causes. Dr. Smallwood agrees, but he still has a top suspect. âIf Iâm only allowed one word: grasshoppers.â
The one parameter that seems to be declining over time, researchers say, is survival of young birds in the summer.
… the thinking is that those juveniles may be more dependent on insect prey because itâs easier to catch.
Meanwhile a nationwide study funded by the USGS and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is looking into the American kestrel’s mysterious decline. I hope they find the answer soon.
In North America we call our smallest falcon a “kestrel” (Falco sparverius) because it resembles the well known Eurasian or common kestrel (Falco tinnunculus) in Europe. Both are cavity nesters that use holes in cliffs, trees or buildings.
Wildlife artist and blogger Robert E Fuller (@RobertEFuller) has live nest cameras at his farm in Yorkshire, England including two on common kestrel nests. When he tweeted this video three days ago the eggs in Jeff and Jenny’s nest were about to hatch. Yesterday the first three hatched. Today the chicks are growing fast and the last egg awaits.
3 chicks in red-tailed hawks’ nest, Schenley Park, 28 May 2023 (photo by Charity Kheshgi)
31 May 2023
Spring nesting season is continuing apace. The first batch of baby robins is learning to fly and some are old enough to forage on their own. Raptor fledglings are not far behind.
On Sunday 28 May we watched three red-tailed hawk chicks in a nest under the Panther Hollow Bridge in Schenley Park. This species hatches in the order the eggs are laid, each one two days younger than the last. The chicks clearly show their age difference in Charity Kheshgi’s video. One chick is getting ready to fly, one is still fluffy, and the middle one is halfway between.
Red-tailed hawks’ nest, Schenley Park, 28 May 2023 (video by Charity Kheshgi)
At the Tarentum Bridge on Sunday afternoon, John English and I watched three peregrine chicks lounging on top of the nestbox while an adult “babysat” nearby.
Adult female peregrine watches her ledge-walking chicks at the Tarentum Bridge, 28 May 2023 (photo by John English)
At first we saw only three chicks but after we moved to a better viewing location the fourth was on the top of the box as well, exercising his wings.
Four peregrine chicks at Tarentum Bridge, 28 May 2023 (photo by Kate St. John)Four peregrine chicks at Tarentum Bridge, 28 May 2023 (photo by Kate St. John)One chick concentrates on exercising his wings (photo by Kate St. John)
And suddenly I saw him fly the length of the pier to the other end and back again to the top of the box! I have no photos of this feat but you get the idea. By today he may have fledged from the bridge.
