Weekend Birding: Red-tailed Hawk Nest
The Cornell Lab of Ornithology has a camera with live streaming video on a Red-tailed Hawk Nest. It is best to watch during the daytime hours. This cam has one of the clearest images of any that I’ve seen. However, at night it goes to black and white and the image is difficult to view.
Vodpod videos no longer available.
This past week the eggs hatched and there are now three fluffy white chicks in the nest. I watched mom feed them a meal of a medium size bird and then a vole for dessert.
It will be another six weeks or so before the chicks leave the nest so there is plenty of time to watch them grow up.
History of the Nest
The pair have been nesting on a light pole nearly 80 feet above Cornell University’s athletic fields for at least the past four years. From banding records it is known that the female is nine years old and the male is at least seven. The female is slightly larger than the male and has darker coloring on her head. The birds have been given the nicknames of Big Red (female) and Ezra (male).
There is a fascinating behind the scenes video showing the installation of the camera in the nest.
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Under My Apple Tree 
Wow, this is really awesome. You have some great spots for watching these beautiful birds.
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We’re watching some baby birds of our own – I’ll post about them later. You got me hooked on nest cams this year and I was devastated when a crow got to the baby hummingbirds I was watching.
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That is wonderful. I have not sen any babies near me, but thanks to the tornado of 2001, we dont have many trees left in the yard.
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Wow, that’s an extraordinary camera- such detail in every feather! Nice to see a bird named after something actually distinctive like their red tail.
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That live cam is so cool! thanks for sharing!
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