while on the visiting family circuit for christmas this year we were at one of the better half's brothers places and we got introduced to steve. steve is a 7 month old harris hawk who is in training for a career at the air bases in trenton and mountain view to keep the air space around the bases free of other birds, mostly sea gulls and geese, for obvious reasons. the better half's niece tiffany has been working there for 3 or 4 years now with the company who has the contract to keep the sky clear and worked with older hawks which were more or less training her for the time she got her own hawk and now she has steve as her own to raise and train.
it's an interesting story on how these birds bond to their trainer and as far as steve knows tiffany is his mom due to his young age. she has brought another older hawk or 2 out to their farm a couple of times while she was in training for her own bird. i asked her who named the hawk steve and she said she did then i asked why steve? she smiled and said, rick his name is steve and he is a hawk but without a wheel chair. "bazinga"
Cool Facts
The Harris's Hawk nests in social units that vary from an adult pair, to as many as seven individuals, including both adults and immatures.
Cooperatively hunting groups of Harris's Hawks are more successful at capturing prey than individuals hunting alone. Hawks with more than two members in their group have higher survival rates.
Although most North American Harris's Hawks nest in spring (March through June), some females lay a second and even a third clutch regardless of whether their first breeding attempt fails or succeeds. Eggs or young have been recorded in every month of the year. Multiple clutches often occur when plentiful food is available.
Older nestlings and subadults sometimes seem to play by chasing insects, or jumping on sticks in an imitation of prey capture.
Electrocution from unshielded power poles is a danger to Harris’s Hawks—they can be killed or lose limbs—but other members of the group sometimes come to the aid of injured individuals, providing them with food.
The oldest known wild Harris’s Hawk in the wild was a male, and at least 15 years old when he was retrapped and rereleased during banding operations in New Mexico in 2001. He had been banded in the same state in 1986. A captive female lived to be 25 years old.
That is to cool. We use to have some parrots until my wife got a concussion and the noise was to much. They can be great pets if you have the time for them. Hawks though that would be way cooler to have around the house, something different.
Would be a very rewarding experience for sure.