Week 51 – Red-tailed Hawk

 

Red-tailed Hawk with a Northern Shoveler. Photograph by Neil Paprocki.

Turns out there are raptors in New York City too, and from my limited observations they live a pretty cushy existence.

Most folks, even non-birders, know about the Red-tailed Hawks of Central Park. But while visiting the big city last week I made a visit to the lesser known, but equally impressive Prospect Park in Brooklyn to check out the bird diversity.

While watching gulls and ducks around the shores of Prospect Park Lake, I saw three separate Red-tailed Hawk hunting attempts in little over an hour. Two of these were successful.

The first successful attempt involved an unlucky immature Ring-billed Gull out in the center of the ice. The hawk picked at the carcass for only a few minutes before attempting to fly it to shore. It dropped the carcass to the ice before making it all the way in, and did not return to feed again.

The second successful hunt involved a different Red-tailed Hawk (banded with an aluminum ring on the separate leg from the other hawk; both were banded). The hawk flew from a tree and made a b-line across the lake, hitting a lone immature Northern Shoveler on a small unfrozen piece of water near the shoreline. The duck never saw the hawk coming.

An unlucky Northern Shoveler.

I snuck around the lake to take this weeks photo as the Red-tail plucked at the duck after dragging it to shore. After 10 minutes or so, the hawk flew off out of sight and I went to inspect the carcass. The hawk had only eaten part of the brain and spinal column of the duck, leaving the rest untouched.

When animals have an over-abundance of available food, they will kill more often and only eat the richest pieces of meat. This appears to be the situation for the hawks of New York City. They have a copious supply of birds on which to prey, most of which are quite tame from their constant interactions with people.

Great to see some raptors adapting quite well to city life.

All of the previous 52-week blog photos can be found at the Wild Lens blog or on Flickr.