I’d like to know if being handled and wired makes hawks more aggressive. mjh
Dive-bombing hawks fly into metro study
Dive-bombing hawks fly into metro study
Umbrella best defense during nesting season
Updated: Thursday, 14 Jun 2012, 5:56 PM MDT
Published : Thursday, 14 Jun 2012, 5:56 PM MDTALBUQUERQUE (KRQE) – An unusual study is going on in northeast Albuquerque involving Cooper’s Hawks and tiny bird backpacks.
The New Mexico Department of the Game and Fish and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service are teaming up to see just how aggressive the hawks are during their nesting season, which runs from May to July.
Each year there are about 20 calls in the city of Albuquerque about aggressive hawks, and almost all of those calls are about the Cooper’s hawk.
If a hawk in your neighborhood is dive bombing you, there are two things you can do: yell and shoo them away or simply use an umbrella when you are close to the tree where they are nesting. Cooper’s won’t see you as a threat if you are under an umbrella.
The aggression will stop once the babies are out of the nest.
Biologists have found 60 nesting pairs of Cooper’s hawks in northeast Albuquerque, and there are many more around the city.
The first step in the research requires capturing the hawks. That’s where Eve, the rehabilitated great horned owl, is put to work.
Horned owls are the enemy of the Cooper’s hawk, so Eve is put on a perch and an invisible net is set up. The Cooper’s are captured, banded and data gathered.
The hawks play an important role in urban ecology. State Game and Fish biologist Kristin Madden says they are fantastic for rodent control and pigeon and dove control as well.
When the fledglings are ready to fly, they will be fitted with tiny bird backpacks. The tracking device has Teflon straps that fit right under the birds feathers, with a tiny transmitter.
The data gathered will help biologists learn more about nesting, survival rates and disease in the birds as well as migration.
Interestingly, Albuquerque’s Cooper’s hawks like it here. They don’t migrate but stay here year round.
The data gathered on the Cooper’s hawks also help scientists learn more about other raptors, such as bald and golden eagles.
