{"id":166581,"date":"2025-02-01T06:13:35","date_gmt":"2025-02-01T13:13:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.featheredphotography.com\/blog\/?p=166581"},"modified":"2025-02-01T08:23:32","modified_gmt":"2025-02-01T15:23:32","slug":"red-tailed-hawks-are-constructing-nests-already","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/2025\/02\/01\/red-tailed-hawks-are-constructing-nests-already\/","title":{"rendered":"Red-tailed Hawks Are Constructing Nests Already"},"content":{"rendered":"

In northern Utah. In January.<\/p>\n

Three days ago, January 29th, was the first day after my pickup was repaired so I was itching to go shooting. At the last minute I decided to head to the west desert. It’s a long drive but it would be a good test for my repaired pickup and besides, after being stuck at home for so long I was looking forward to the drive and the solitude in pretty remote country.<\/p>\n

I ended up seeing and documenting nesting behavior in Red-tailed Hawks, a behavior I’d never witnessed so early in the year.<\/p>\n

Note: Many of the photos below are of mediocre to poor quality. The hawks were usually far away so some of these photos have been cropped severely. I’m posting them for documentary purposes only.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

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When I approached a very tall cliff I noticed this adult Red-tailed Hawk perched on a large rock at the very top of the cliff. For behavioral reasons, I suspect that this bird is a male. The hawk was so high up on the cliff I could barely get my lens on him because of the restrictions of the upper frame of my pickup window.<\/p>\n

Soon I noticed another adult red-tail soaring not too far away. Eventually the second hawk landed on the same very large cliff, perhaps 100 yards away from the first hawk. Since red-tails are monogamous and often mate for life, I wondered if they might be a mated pair. There are two old red-tail nests in the vicinity but since it was still January, the possibility that they were already in the process of nest construction\/refurbishing didn’t even cross my mind.<\/p>\n

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Then one of the hawks (I’m not sure which one but I suspect it’s the male) took off and landed in some brushy bushes several hundred yards from the cliff. He was so far away I could barely see him so I decided to drive up on him. As I approached him, he took off and landed in another nearby brushy bush – this one. I had the definite impression he was looking for something. Prey?<\/p>\n

He was still far away but through my lens I could tell that he was tugging on some of the branches of the bush which caused him to lose his balance, as we see in this photo. After repeated awkward attempts, he…<\/p>\n

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was finally able to break off one of the twigs, which in this photo is in his bill.<\/p>\n

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Then he took off with the twig and…<\/p>\n

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headed in the general direction of the two nests I mentioned. I got nearly a dozen photos of him in flight with the twig but my focus point locked onto the background so in that photo series the hawk was increasingly soft.<\/p>\n

One of the nests was on the other side of the cliff and far away so I had to turn my pickup around, drive to the other side of the cliff, and turn around again before I could see it. Presuming the hawk initially went to that nest, he was…<\/p>\n

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already gone by the time I got it in my viewfinder. It’s equally possible that he took the twig to the other nest, that I couldn’t see because it was further down the road.<\/p>\n

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Several times I saw both birds cavorting near each other in flight but this is the only shot I was able to get that included both of them.<\/p>\n

When you see a Red-tailed Hawk gathering twigs and carrying them in flight, you pretty much know that the bird is in the process of nest-building. Even when it’s still January.<\/p>\n

Cornell’s Birds of the World says that nest-building in Red-tailed Hawks “usually begins late Feb or early Mar”. All I know is that in the past, I’m sure I’ve never seen red-tails exhibiting nesting behavior in January.<\/p>\n

Ron<\/p>\n

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PS – Another (remote?) possibility is that the presumed male never took the twig to either nest. He may have presented it to the female as a “nuptial gift”, a behavior I’ve seen in red-tails in the past at the beginning of nesting season.<\/em><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In northern Utah. In January. (7 photos)<\/p>\n

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