Tuesday, May 2, 2017

Christo and Dora display teamwork

Urban Hawks has confirmed that Christo and Dora have at least one kid up in their nest in Tompkins Square.  In this video taken on May 1, you can see a fuzzy white baby head bobbing around.  Time will tell if the nestling has any siblings.

With at least one hungry youngster, the hawks have been busy with feedings.  On Saturday, I caught them engaged in some interesting teamwork.  Christo perched on the edge of the nest and tore up food, which he passed over to Dora.  She, in turn, fed the little one(s) down below in the bottom of the nest. 

Christo feeds Dora

I've never seen them work together this way and they kept it up for about 15-20 minutes.

Christo feeds Dora

When the feeding was done, Christo went off to fetch some food for the adults.  He dove down to the ground on the east side of the park...

Christo diving for prey

...and lingered a bit in some wildflowers.

Christo in wildlflowers

I thought he'd caught something fresh, but Christo popped up with an old leg o' rat.

Christo with a leg o' rat

Christo with a leg o' rat

As he flew past me...

Christo the red-tail

Christo took the rat leg back up to the nest.

Christo the red-tail

Dora, who'd been flying around stretching her wings, came swooping in.  It's hard to see in the photo below, but her talons appear to be just about to grab Christo's back as he's bent over in the nest.

Dora comes in for a landing

The hawks keep the nest clean by removing old food and eating it elsewhere, so Dora took the rat leg and flew it to a nearby tree to have her dinner.

Dora removes food from the nest

Dora removes food from the nest

Dora flies with food

Christo stretches after a busy day hunting and feeding his family.

Christo stretches

I'll end with this photo as it show's Christo's near perfect symmetry and his beautiful tail.

Christo the red-tail 

See many more recent hawk photos on my Flickr page.

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