New Generation Of Red Tailed Hawks Fills City After Successful Breeding Season

EAST VILLAGE, NY — The next generation of red tailed hawks is filling city parks as a successful breeding season hatches dozens of chicks.

New York City's population of the raptors has grown steadily over the past decade – with a major boost in the past few years which experts say is down to an ample supply of food.

Among this year's new parents include Christo and Dora, an East Village hawk couple that has lived in and around Tompkins Square Park since 2013. Their nest is in a tall tree near the center of the park, often surrounded by birdwatchers who document their lives.

Laura Goggin, an East Village resident and photographer, has been following Christo and Dora for years.

"This is a real neighborhood park and the hawks are a part of that neighborhood," Goggin said recently as she watched Dora in her nest.

Across the city there are at least 20 nesting hawk couples this year, 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.

Richard Simon, the director of the department's wildlife unit, said that birds are doing so well because the city habitat provides ample food, tree cover, clean water and nesting options.

Pale Male, Manhattan's most famous bird of prey who has perched on homes around Fifth Avenue at Central Park since the 1990s, is so beloved in the city that he's even been the subject of a children's book and movie. Pale Male is a testament to the healthy environment many hawks find in NYC; most hawks in the wild live about 10 or 12 years, but Pale Male is well into his 20s, Simon said.

But the population also faces distinctly urban problems, the most significant being rat poison. Eating just one poisoned rat can kill a hawk.

"It's definitely the biggest threat for red-tailed hawks and other raptors in New York City," said Debra Kriensky, a conversation biologist at the city's Audubon Society.

The rodenticide used throughout the city is believed to poison at least two or three hawks each year, according to experts. Rodenticide poisoned Lima, one of Pale Male's mates, in 2012.

The city has taken steps to mitigate the danger that rodenticide poses to hawks, mainly by avoiding use of the poison in parks during nesting season, which spans roughly from March through August. However, advocates for the birds, like Goggin, note that the hawks often hunt outside of city parks, so the city's more cautious use of the poison doesn't always mean the birds can avoid it.

Earlier this year, a hawk was found seriously ill in Sara D. Roosevelt Park on the Lower East Side. The hawk was transported to the Animal Medical Center for treatment but had ingested too much poison to be saved.

In addition to halting the use of rodenticide in parks during breeding season, the parks department, along with researchers at the Audubon Society and other amateur bird watchers, keeps detailed records of where nests and hawk families have been spotted throughout the city.

Although red tailed hawks aren't an endangered species nationwide, conservationists remain concerned about the threat that a human-distributed rodenticide poses to the urban raptors.

"The two to three killed a year, that we know, is still a lot," Kriensky said. "It's not like we have hundreds and hundreds of them [in New York City], we have dozens."

Simon said that the department's work to mitigate secondary poisoning also included educating local residents and business owners about the danger of using rodenticide. WildlifeNYC, a new initiative launched last year, is part of a push by the city to educate New Yorkers about urban wildlife, and to encourage the humans and animals to coexist peacefully.

"These animals are New Yorkers," Simon said. "It's not just an animal that stumbled into New York City and needs to be removed. These animals were born here and many of them will stay here."

Photos courtesy of Laura Goggin / Laura Goggin Photography.