Harris Hawk

The Harris hawk is a medium sized raptor found in the southwestern United States, Mexico, Central America and parts of South America. Most of the Harris hawk's habitat is dry and desolate, so they have adapted some behaviors that are not typical to other raptors. Since their is not typically a lot of prey in their habitat, they eat primarily mammals, Harris hawks hunt in packs, like wolves or lions. Often one or two birds will chase the prey to where others are waiting in ambush. These packs usually consist of a family group of 2 to 5 birds. Since there are not many trees in many parts of their habitat Harris Hawks will often stack, with one bird perched upon the back of another.

Harris Hawk

 The Harris hawk is a colorful medium sized hawk. They are found in Mexico, Central and South America. In the United States they can be found in the southwest, particularly Texas and Arizona. These pictures where taken in south Texas.

 They are typically found in arid scrubland, tropical deciduous forest, mangrove swamps, and open grasslands habitats. They stay on their breeding territory all year long and do not typically migrate. They eat primarily small mammals but will also eat birds, lizards, snakes and large insects.

Young Harris hawks often stay with their parents for up to three years after they fledge. These family groups will often hunt together in pack type fashion. One bird will often flush the prey and chase it to where other members of the "pack" are waiting in ambush. In much of their territory trees are sparse so Harris hawks will often perch on the back of another Harris hawk in a behavior called stacking. This last photo is an immature Harris hawk.

Harris Hawk

 The Harris hawk is a medium sized hawk that is found in North and South America. They typically live in hot arid climates and as such do not migrate. In North America they are found primarily in the southwest, south Texas and Arizona, and Mexico. Harris hawks are some times found well outside their range. This is typically due to falconry birds that escape and become feral, since Harris Hawks are very popular falconry birds.

 Harris hawks nest in small trees, scrub bushes or cactus. The female usually builds the nest which is sticks and plants and lined with leaves or moss. Clutch size is usually 2 to 4 eggs which are incubated primarily by the female for 30 to 36 days before they hatch. When the chicks hatch they are bald, blind and helpless. It will take about 45 to 50 days before they are able to fledge. Since Harris hawks breed in climates that do not change much in the winter the females will sometimes breed two to three times a year.

The Harris hawk is more social then most other raptors. Typically raptors are loners tolerating other raptors only when breeding but Harris hawks often live in small social groups. Often breeding groups consists of a couple of adult males and one female. Immature birds will sometimes stay with their parents for two to three years helping to feed and raise new broods. Since there are not a lot of trees in the habitats in which they are found they will often perch on each others backs, called stacking. They will also hunt in a group using some of the same pack hunting techniques as lions and wolves. Harris hawks that hunt in a group are much more successful then those that hunt on their own.

Tuesday Tweets

The Harris hawk is an interesting bird. While most raptors are solitary except for mating and migration Harris hawks often live in groups of up to seven birds. These groups consist of both juvenile and adult birds of both sexes. They will often hunt cooperatively also. Harris hawks hunting as a pack are more successful then birds that hunt individually. Hunting in a group allows them to employ different strategies then would be possible for a lone bird, such as having one or two birds chase the prey while others wait ahead in an ambush. It is believed that this cooperative behavior may have developed because of the harsh desert climates where these bird are usually found, such as the south western United States, Mexico as well as parts of Central and South America.

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Harris Hawk

The Harris hawk is a large hawk that is found in the south western United States, Mexico, Central America and parts of South America. They were once called bay-winged hawks or dusky hawks but were named the Harris hawk by J.J. Audubon after his friend Edward Harris. They are the only member of the genus Parabuteo.
In the southwestern United States Harris hawks usually nest from late February through March. They nest in small trees, shrubs, or on cacti. The nest is made of sticks, weeds and roots and is usually lined with moss, leaves, and soft grasses. Typically 2 to 4 eggs are laid which take 31 to 37 days to hatch. It takes another 35 to 50 days before the young can fly. Since these birds are found in a warm climate some females will continue to lay eggs year round having 2 to 3 clutches per year. The photo above is an immature bird.
Most raptor are solitary by nature but the Harris hawk is an exception to that rule. Harris hawks are sometimes believed to practice polyandry. This means that three adults, typically two males and one female, will nest together. The female usually does most of the incubating of the eggs but all three adults will help in defending and feeding the young. Harris hawks also often hunt together using pack type strategies. Several of the hawks will flush the prey while another will wait to ambush it. Groups using these pack style hunting techniques are more successful then birds that hunt solo.

SOAR at the National Eagle Center

March is kind of the beginning of the bird migration here in Minnesota. Most birds migrate because there is less food during the winter. So in March as the rivers and lakes begin to thaw, those birds that rely on wetlands habitat for food begin to return to the area.

Eagles are one of the birds that begin to migrate north in March. During the winter many eagles migrate to southern Minnesota where they can find open waters to fish in. Others continue south down into Iowa, Southern Wisconsin, Illinois, Nebraska or other states. It all depend on how much food that their is available. Now with all of the water beginning to open up here the eagles are moving back north to their breeding territories.

In March the National Eagle Center, located in Wabasha, MN, hosts their Soar with the Eagles event. Each weekend is packed with programs to entertain and educate people about eagles, raptors and environmental issues. Thousands of people visit Wabasha during this time to check out the programs and eagle watch along the river.

I headed down to Wabasha on March 12th because I wanted to see the Cincinnati Zoo "Wings of Wonder" program. The eagle center has several classrooms that are used for educational programs but for the big programs during "Soar with the Eagles" they use a gymnasium at one of the local private schools to accommodate the large crowds. I estimate that there were a couple of hundred people or more at the program that I attended at 2pm.

The show was a mixture of different types of birds. There were several raptors that were not native to Minnesota including a Harris hawk, photo number 3, which are native to south western North America, and a spectacled owl, above which is native to Central and South America.

The program also featured several other birds that were not raptors. There were several parrots that performed flight demonstrations, speech demonstrations or other tricks. There was a Kookaburra, which is a native of Australia, that had a very interesting call and a cute little penguin that was usually found in southern South America.

The reason that I chose to travel down to Wabasha on this particular weekend was because they were bringing a Stellar's sea eagle with them. This was my first opportunity to see one of these huge birds that are native to Russia and other parts of Asia. The Stellar's sea eagle is the largest eagle species, by weight, in the world. This particular bird was a young male so he was only about 12 to 13 pounds but the females can weigh up to 20 pounds. They need the weight because they are typically found in cold harsh climates. This was a big way to finish off the program and definitely worth the drive down to Wabasha. Next weekend is the final weekend of Soar with the Eagles and the feature program is from the World Bird Sanctuary in St Louis. I would definitely recommend checking out the program if you have the chance.

Javelina - Martin Refuge

What turned out to be probably our favorite location during our Texas trip, and probably the most productive, was a small private refuge near Mission Texas called the Javelina. The Javelina is about 300 acres of native Texas scrub habitat. It is owned by the Martin family and is the original home of private nature photography in the Rio Grande Valley.

Seven photo blinds are positioned through out the property with a dirt road winding between them. Three of the blinds are set up to get morning sun, three are more for the afternoon and one is all purpose. We started out in the raptor blind, pictured above in the morning.

As we got settled into the blind Patty Raney, photographer and our Certified Interpretive Guide for the day deposited chunks of meat and body parts that she had obtained from some of the local taxidermists. Soon after Patty left us the raptors started to come in to feast.

Northern caracara made up the bulk of the raptors that visited the area to feed. We did see and photograph caracara at other parks that we visited but none were as close up and personal as at the Javelina. Most were adults like the one two photos up but there were also some juveniles, like the one pictured above, mixed in.

Although the caracara had numbers the obvious bosses of the area were the Harris hawks. When they flew in to feed the caracara were quick to get out of their way. Harris hawks often nest and hunt in social units consisting of multiple birds. There was one unit consisting of 3 adults and one juvenile that appeared to rule this territory. When a group of about 8 turkey vultures begin to circle over head it was probably the presence of the Harris hawks that deterred them from coming in to feed.

After lunch we moved to an afternoon blind to photograph song birds and Texas specialties. These blinds are built sunken into the ground so that you can photograph the smaller birds at eye level. With a watering hole located near each blind and seed and meal worms supplied by Patty we were ready to get some good shots of some of the Texas specialty birds.

It did not take long before the birds came to check out the food. The first birds in were northern cardinals. Even though we snapped a few pics we were not all that excited because cardinals are pretty common in Minnesota. However the next bird that came into view where a species that has never, at least to my knowledge, been seen in Minnesota. Green jays are not known for being inhibited and as such they took over a lot of the feed for most of the time that we were there.

At our first afternoon blind the northern cardinals kept chasing away the smaller pyrrhuloxia from where the food was located in front of the blind. Since I was a lot more interested in getting pictures of pyrrhuloxia, a life bird for me, then of northern cardinals we decided to try a different afternoon blind. The second blind worked much better.

That afternoon we photographed great kiskadee, long-billed thrasher, white-tipped doves, common ground dove, plain chacalaca, pyrruloxia, green jays and olive sparrows, pictured above, all of which were life birds on that trip.