Injured Hawk Leaves Tompkins Square Park

EAST VILLAGE, NY — An injured red tailed hawk left her home in Tompkins Square Park on Wednesday to receive treatment for a damaged wing, according to a local animal rescue.

Dora, half of the hawk couple that lives in the park, was removed to the care of the Long Island nonprofit Wildlife in Need of Rescue and Rehabilitation, or WINORR. Dora's injured wing does not appear to be broken, according to WINORR, but it will likely be a while before she can return to Manhattan. Since 2013, Dora and her partner Christo have lived in and around Tompkins Square Park, where the pair have hatched nearly a dozen young chicks.

Dora's departure, however, likely means the end of the couple's long time relationship. Although red tailed hawks usually mate for life, Christo was spotting moving on from Dora just hours after she was rescued on Wednesday.

Local bird watcher and photographer Laura Goggin said on her blog that shortly after Dora was taken into rehab, a new female hawk appeared to take her place in the nest, and that the new hawk and Christo were seen mating just hours after Dora left the East Village. The news of the contentious love triangle was first reported by the blog EV Grieve.

This is not the first time that Christo has forgotten about his longtime partner. In November, when Dora left Tompkins Square Park for rehab for the same wing, a new hawk dubbed "Nora" (as in, Not Dora) was spotted in the park, and was believed to have taken her place.

Goggin said on her blog that, although Dora and Christo were seen mating before she was removed on Wednesday, no eggs have been spotted from the longtime parenting couple. Bird watchers don't think that Christo and his second girlfriend, Nora, ever laid any eggs, as she hasn't been spotted in the park in several weeks.

Across the city there are at least 20 nesting hawk couples, according to officials at the parks department. The offspring of nesting hawks in the city aren't tracked, but experts say the could remain in the city or travel to other parts of New York or New Jersey after leaving the nest.

Hawk couples around the city are laying their eggs, which will likely begin hatching later this spring. You can keep a close watch on a hawk nest in the West Village through the NYU hawk camera.

Image credit: Courtesy of WINORR