Posted on 03/20/2024 8:40:48 PM PDT by nickcarraway
Angel the red-tailed hawk is leucistic, which is similar to being albino.
Almost 2.5 million rad-tailed hawks call North America home, but one of those birds in Tennessee is changing how scientists think, thanks to her survival story.
Angel, the red-tailed hawk, is leucistic, similar to being albino. While an albino animal loses all of its pigmentation, a leucistic animal only loses part; both conditions, scientists say, can lower survival rates.
“Back in the early 2000s, scientists and conservation biologists would say that leucistic and albino animals cannot exist in the wild.” Window to Wildlife’s Connor O’Brien said. “It would be very rare for them to survive.”
O’Brien is a project manager and biologist who installed a camera on Angel’s nest. He said her coloring makes it harder to hunt prey.
“Having no camo is just really bad, but she has been able to figure out how to hunt even though it’s a bit easier for prey to see her coming,” O’Brien said.
A big reason O’Brien thinks Angel is thriving as well as she is? Love.
“She’s had to rely more on her mate to help with that, especially during the nesting season,” O’Brien said, talking about Angel’s mate, Tom. “Tom has become an excellent hunter; he catches significantly more than she does.”
Tom’s presence makes Angel’s life easier, O’Brien said, protecting her from intruders in the nest.
“We have a lot of blue jays that harass red-tailed hawks, specifically Angel, when she’s in the nest,” O’Brien said. “Last season, every 10 seconds, blue jays would hit Angel’s head all day, but when Tom gets in the nest, the blue jays just leave them alone.”
O’Brien said that love has made Angel’s survival even rarer, changing how scientists think about leucistic birds.
“Scientists don’t think they can mate with their own species because species can’t identify them,” O’Brien said. “So Angel is shifting that narrative and giving us new data on leucism.”
Angel has produced four offspring in the last few years, marking a love story that defies the odds.
Wish blue jays leave her alone
I found the live cam for Angel last year, right after her first chick hatched. Watched all the way through to fledging.
Now I, along with many others, am eagerly awaiting this year’s brood. She and Tom have been busy getting the nest ready and she should lay her eggs soon.
She is a real beauty and an excellent momma.
Mind controlling hawk?
Red tailed hawks are the coyotes of the sky and should be shot on sight.
The bane of my hood are the crows.
They eat the eggs and young of all bird nests. I try to take them out with a pellet gun…they know me.
Last year, the crows killed the hatchlings of a Mississippi Kite nest in my tree while I was at work.
The pair left in late June when they had just arrived from their migration in May.
I do not like crows and they know it.
There is an absolute line (DMZ?) where the Blue Jays hold off the crows and it has been holding for a number of years.
They make a good ale.
Apparently, they used to make a good ale.
As far as the birds, they will decimate a quail, pheasant or turkey population.
They are a total nuisance where I live, but rachael Carlson told us they are the most important thing ever.
Sort of like when engineers said it was impossible that bees could fly.
And I have great respect for most real engineers.
To credit “love” for the survival of this bird is a bit whimsical. I mean, love has been misdefined so much that it is now a vague word, and not at all scientific:
So you’re upset that the hawk killed the quail, pheasant and turkeys before you could?
“Almost 2.5 million.”
Really? Who counted them?
I was making a delivery one day and a hawk was soaring around. I didnt know what kind of hawk it was and asked a man who was also looking at it if he knew. He replied, it’d be a dead hawk if I had my gun. I said, you dont like hawks? He replied, I love them, rolled in flour and fried.
I see them patrolling the freeways, swooping down to grab mice in the medians.
In the 1970s those same scientists would have concluded she’s just making any evolutionary adaptation for the coming ice age.
There was a white gray squirrel that lived in our neighbor hood for several years. The squirrel adapted to the existing conditions
Angel and tom should feed their fledglings Blue jays
Any chance you could post the link?
As long as there is strong pair bonding with a male that will aggressively nest-guarding a site, the female should be okay.
There’s a herd of leucistic White-tailed deer at the former Seneca Army Depot and adjacent areas. They have done well for decades.
Last year I was sitting on my porch and I saw a Red Tail Hawk swoop down beside the far end of my deck. He came back up with a cat in his talons and flew off to a large oak to enjoy his snack. The cat was making an awful fuss.
Used to be a lady up the street who has since moved and one of her pastimes was rehabilitating wildlife and she did rehabilitate a red shoulder Hawk and after she moved that Hawk remained and that Hawk is still in the rural neighborhood and it is indifferent in regards to human activity. I like the hawk! I have voles and gophers and squirrels, the Hawk dines regulary on my street.
For sure. We have quite a few that circle our area and they have landed awfully close to our cats on more than one occasion. We also have falcons and once in a great while we get a visiting Bald Eagle. Quite impressive.
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