Nesting, Fledgeing and Branching ©

Early in the morning, Mom is still sitting on the nest to provide warmth for the chicks, while the males are out hunting.  Males?  Yes!  A female Harris Hawk will mate with two males (polyandry), and this is not due to an imbalance in the population of male to female.  It is not certain why this exists--one theory relates to the amount of food available.  Studies show that in areas of large amounts of food, the males are more likely to mate with more than one female (polygamy), as they are able to provide food for both.  In areas of polyandry, it is more likely that food is limited, so the odds for the survival for the young are improved with two or more males providing the food.  

Flight feathers start to grow at around three weeks.  Over the next few weeks these nestlings will begin flap-hopping but won't start fledging until about the sixth week after hatching. For the first few weeks after fledging the chicks are called "branchers", perching inconspicuously in lower branches.  During this time the chicks will still be actively fed by their parents while they are learning to fly and hunt on their own.  These baby hawks may depend on their parents until about 15 weeks old, at which time the parents will stop responding to the begging cries from the young.  The young birds will stay in their parents' territory for 30 to 70 days, before migrating.

There are two of them.

They only have 40 days before they fledge--they are growing fast.

It seems that mom is trying to take a nap.  Where do birds sleep?  The nest is for keeping eggs and chicks in place. When nesting is over the nest is a mess, splattered with droppings of the fledgling, and in some cases, a dead chick, which can attract parasites and predators. The birds just don't need the nest anymore.

Not long before this youngster is going to fledge!

(Copyright 2015)