Bird in Mt. Hope Cemetary Rochester NY and More On Alex

This lovely photo and a question from Tammy, a friend of a friend, was forwarded to me--

"I toured an awesome old cemetary with cool buildings etc. in NY. I was just getting to the end and saw one more statue with a cool bird on it, than I realized it was alive. I walked over 3 miles the place goes on forever. I couldn't believe how close he let me get, I took a bunch of pictures before me flew off. What kind of bird do you think he is??? Really large wing span, this statue was at least 10 foot tall. " Tammy

Tammy,

Red-tails often take territory with high hunting perches, ie. mixed woods, cliffs, tall buildings adjacent to open areas. Note your young hawk is perched atop a nice tall statue, with a good view from which to watch for prey.

Her tail still has the lateral stripes of a two years and under hawk of the species. Her brown striped tail will molt into one of rufous red after her second season,. As she is still a "brown-tail" she might well still be hunting in or near her parent's territory. And the fact that she stuck around for you to photograph her repeatedly might tend to suggest she was hatched this season and is urbanized, relatively immured to humans.

Red-tails are very adaptable and broad minded when it comes to a definition of what can be turned into dinner. They eat rodents such as voles and mice on up to hefty rats and larger Red-tails, usually females as they outweigh their male counterparts, will take rabbits. They also eat squirrels and pigeons, particularly in urban areas , and out west they'll dine on snake.

And a piece from The New York Times and a short YouTube video of Alex---

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/09/16/weekinreview/16john.html?

Donegal Browne