A person usually becomes well-acquainted with the natural cycles and rhythms of a specific location if they spend many years observing nature there. But one of the great joys of birdwatching is to expect the unexpected. In the mid-1990s, nobody in New York City ever expected to find a pair of Red-tailed Hawks setting up a nest on the façade of an apartment building on Fifth Avenue and 74th Street, but it happened. Marie Winn chronicles the amazing journey of the “Fifth Avenue Hawks” in her delightful book Red-Tails in Love.
Central Park was designed in 1858 by Frederick Law Olmsted, who is widely considered the father of landscape architecture, and his partner Calvert Vaux. Olmsted and Vaux wanted to create a bucolic escape from the hustle and bustle of urban life, but never intended the park to become the wilderness that it is today. Over 280 bird species have been recorded in Central Park since it’s inception. Red-tailed Hawks started breeding near the park in 1994 with the hawks described in Winn’s book and continue to breed there to this day.
Winn discovers The Bird Register, a notebook used by Central Park birdwatchers to share their sightings with one another. She quickly becomes a willing student of many of the park’s most frequent and experienced birders who she dubs “The Regulars”. Winn shares the stories of The Regulars while giving us a glimpse into the park’s annual nature cycles such as spring migration and fall hawk counts.
But one day the smooth flow of normal birding was interrupted when a distinctive male Red-tailed Hawk appeared. Unlike a typical Red-tail, this individual was exceptionally light, missing the trademark brown “belly-band” and having an almost white head. The Regulars dubbed him “Pale Male” and he unknowingly became the star of his own romantic drama. When Pale Male and his new mate, nicknamed “First Love”, attempted nesting on the apartment building hawk watching become an obsession.
Winn briefly takes us through 4 years of breeding attempts. Like any good romantic drama (if Red-tails were the movie stars lol) there’s stunning displays of affection, failed nesting attempts, and of course adorable chicks. There’s even a case of mistaken identity and the rallying of the troops with US Fish & Wildlife to protect the nest. One of my favorite parts was Winn describing the hawk watchers on their bench giving the hawks encouraging remarks like “Great job mom!” to the female feeding her chicks and “Wow, nice catch dad!” when Pale Male arrives to the nest with a rat or pigeon.
Bird watching is already an amazing pastime, but it’s extra special when you get the rare opportunity to know an individual wild bird. For the Central Park birders Pale Male wasn’t just some Red-tailed Hawk; they knew him personally. He had daily routines, favorite locations, and a family. They worried about the hawks’ well-being, protected them at all costs, and celebrated their accomplishments. The “Fifth Avenue Hawks” not only fostered the Central Park birding community, but became an integral part of it. The hawks helped citizens connect, created friendships, and encouraged people to become stewards of the natural world in their own backyards. Marie Winn reminds us through her wonderful story that we can all be part of that community; all we have to do is enjoy nature with an open heart.
When living at the Jersey Shore we had our own “Pale Male”, an American Oystercatcher called “T2”. You can read about the Jersey Shore’s most beloved oystercatcher here, here, and my love letter to him here.
References
- Kooper, M. B., Winston, T., & Maas, H. D. (2020). Central Park. NYC Audubon. https://www.nycaudubon.org/events-birding/birding-resources/birding-in-nyc/birding-in-manhattan/central-park
- Winn, M. (1999). Red-Tails in Love. Vintage Books.
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