Red-tailed hawks
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Guest
Do these guys pose a threat to the martin society........I have always known them to be ground-rodent hunters........but I do have 2 or 3 that raise young close by here in the open pastures and fields that surround my home?????
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John Miller
- Posts: 4866
- Joined: Mon Mar 22, 2004 9:11 pm
- Location: St. Louis, MO
Mr. Lodi
I asked this last year. There's a pair of big hawks, I think red-tails, in tall pines near a house I manage in a park, and they've returned this year. They are carrying rodents into the nest now, which surprises me, but maybe this is not early for hawks to be rearing young.
Experts on the Forum say the big hawks are not major threats to martins and actually will chase Cooper's Hawks away. Martins -- and red wing black birds -- chased the hawks at my site all summer last year as the hawks crossed back and forth where the martin house is located, but there didn't seem to be any problems.
John Miller
I asked this last year. There's a pair of big hawks, I think red-tails, in tall pines near a house I manage in a park, and they've returned this year. They are carrying rodents into the nest now, which surprises me, but maybe this is not early for hawks to be rearing young.
Experts on the Forum say the big hawks are not major threats to martins and actually will chase Cooper's Hawks away. Martins -- and red wing black birds -- chased the hawks at my site all summer last year as the hawks crossed back and forth where the martin house is located, but there didn't seem to be any problems.
John Miller
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Louise Chambers
- Site Admin
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- Location: Corpus Christi, TX
Another plus to have a pair of redtails nest near your martin colony is that the hawks' presence & defense of their nesting territory may help keep owls away. Owls will raid hawk nests and vice versa; they are NOT fond of each other as neighbors. Same goes for crows, which do not want hawks or owls near their nests. So consider a nesting pair of crows or hawks (with the exception of cooper's or sharpshinned hawks) your ally.
Of course, there are exceptions, too. Fish Crows (only rarely American Crows) may raid martin houses and gourds, and Redtailed Hawks have been recorded raiding gourds in SC by a landlord there. Adding hawk/owl guards to houses and gourds will protect the martins effectively.
Louise
Of course, there are exceptions, too. Fish Crows (only rarely American Crows) may raid martin houses and gourds, and Redtailed Hawks have been recorded raiding gourds in SC by a landlord there. Adding hawk/owl guards to houses and gourds will protect the martins effectively.
Louise
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Glen Webb Jr
- Posts: 478
- Joined: Tue Jan 06, 2004 1:03 pm
- Location: Illinois/Stewardson
Most of the time, and I stress most, the martins in my yard ignore the resident pair of red-tailed hawks. Sometimes the martins get a wild bur up their rears and think they need to divebomb the retail, but it's nothing like how the red-winged blackbirds and grackles mob the hawk. The only time I notice a difference in martin behaviour towards retails is when the young martins are near fledging and the parents are more nervous and cautious.
Personally, I think a red-tailed hawk would have to be a very well-adapted buteo to capture a martin on the wing. Not to say they won't take a recently fledged young perhaps, but I think overall, redtails are about as harmless to a martin colony as a northern harrier.
Personally, I think a red-tailed hawk would have to be a very well-adapted buteo to capture a martin on the wing. Not to say they won't take a recently fledged young perhaps, but I think overall, redtails are about as harmless to a martin colony as a northern harrier.
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roblrich
I have always wondered why my colony has never been attacked from hawks or owls. From Louise's comments, it may be because we have so many crows around here. Red-wing blackbirds are in a abundance also.