Red-Shouldered Hawks and American Crows are known to collaborate and work together to mob and attack Red-Tailed Hawks and Great Horned Owls, both of which prey on their nests. This hawk does have red shoulders, but this feature can only be seen on perched birds. Unlike many other hawks, it usually doesn't migrate and is found year round on much of its territory. Found on both the east and west coasts, its main stronghold in the City is in Golden Gate Park. One of the raptor species that is often confused with the Red-Tailed Hawk is the Red-Shouldered Hawk, a related, but smaller hawk. Peregrine falcons have been found around the building since 1987, and have used the nest box intermittently since 2003. There is now a year round webcam focused on the nest. In early February, a pair of falcons usually show up at a nest box on the PG & E building in downtown San Francisco to begin courtship, and by the end of February there are often eggs in the nest, with chicks hatching in March. They eat mainly birds, and feed routinely on rock pigeons, which gives them a steady source of food in San Francisco. Their long migration is reflected in their name – the Latin word peregrinus means "coming from foreign parts." The banning of DDT in the early 1970s saved them from extinction, and their population began to rebound -allowing them to be removed from the Endangered Species list in 1999.Īlthough Peregrine Falcons can be found all year in San Francisco, they migrate long distances elsewhere, from the tropics to the tundra.
They had almost stopped reproducing as a result of exposure to DDT, a pesticide that thinned their egg shells, killing most of their young. They believed that the Peregrine, in flight before sunrise, brought forth the sun each new day.įorty years ago, the future looked bleak for these magnificent birds. The ancient Egyptians who settled along the Nile River five thousand years ago brought with them a falcon god – Heru, inspired by the Peregrine Falcon.
It has been clocked at 200 miles per hour in a dive, making it the fastest animal alive today (which probably led to its nickname as "the great white shark of the sky"). That distinction belongs to the Peregrine Falcon, a bird that evolved nesting on cliffs but now also nests on skyscrapers and bridges, including on downtown buildings and the Bay Bridge in San Francisco. Juveniles generally do not get their red tails until they are three years old.Īnd while Red-Tailed Hawks can reach a speed of 120 miles per hour in a dive, they are not the fastest raptor in the sky. There are 14 different sub-species of this distinctive bird, some of which do not have red tails. The biggest females (females can weigh twice as much as males), rarely weigh more than 3 pounds. They can spot a mouse from a height of 100 feet.Īlthough Red-Tailed Hawks are one of the largest birds found in North America, with a wing span that can exceed 4 feet, they are amazingly light. Red-Tailed Hawks eat mainly rodents, including rats, mice and gophers, as well as a few small birds, such as Blackbirds. As a result, every time you see a Bald Eagle (or for that matter, any hawk) calling in a movie, what you are actually hearing is a Red-Tailed Hawk. For example, years ago, Hollywood decided that the distinctive cry of the Red-Tailed Hawk sounded much better than the gull-like call of the Bald Eagle. Red-Tailed Hawks show up in some unusual places. These magnificent hunters, present in every neighborhood in San Francisco, occupy a wide range in North America, from Alaska to Panama. I regularly see Red-Tailed Hawks soaring over the Tenderloin as I walk to work.
While many birds are found only in specialized habitats in San Francisco, raptors (in Latin, raptor means to seize), including hawks and owls, are found throughout the City. The park is also one of the best places in the City to see the courtship display of these aerial acrobats, as they dive and roll together, even locking their talons in a dive before separating. There's usually one perched at the very top of a Monkey Puzzle Tree, a native raptor in an imported tree. A pair (they mate for life) has nested and raised young in the park across from the Cliff House for many years. Sutro Heights Park is one of the reliable nesting sites for these huge birds. After a while, the hawk, tired of the attacks, took its prey and flew to another tree. Looking up, I could see a Red-Tailed Hawk, systematically plucking a Brewer's Blackbird, while other agitated blackbirds continually attacked the hawk by literally diving into it. Walking through Sutro Heights Park last Saturday, I was startled by a small blizzard of black feathers as I passed under a pine tree.
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