Hawk Fight

It's Throwback Thursday, so let's talk about something I saw 4 years ago. (Some of you might be familiar with this story already.)

A few years ago while wandering through a patch of woods trying to walk off my lunch, I encountered a hawk version of mixed martial arts. Initially I had heard a Red-tailed Hawk screaming [1] overhead, which I considered a little puzzling since I'd expect the noise to be advertising to all their potential prey to be on alert. I didn't get a visual of the hawk in flight though, and soon forgot about it. Then 15-20 minutes later, I heard a commotion in a little clearing off the trail.

It turned out to be a couple of Red-tailed Hawks battling on the ground. (I don't know if the fight started in the air, though I wouldn't be surprised if it did.) Initially I couldn't tell what was going on. I saw 1 hawk that seemed to be thrashing around and I wondered if it was hurt. Looking closer it became clear that there were 2 hawks involved, though 1 of them seemed to be on the bottom a lot, and that this was due to the actions of the other hawk.

The details of the fight were hard to determine, though there were obviously some attempts to bite and scratch going on. I kind of wondered if this was going to be a fight to the death, but after a while the "top hawk" flew away. And a couple minutes after that, the "bottom hawk" also flew away.

The next day I went back and looked at the fight scene. I didn't see obvious signs of blood but given the beak and talon weaponry of the hawks I'd be surprised if neither hawk was injured during the encounter.

I have 2 theories about the brouhaha:

1. It could be a simple territorial dispute. There's only so many incautious squirrels and rabbits in an area, and sharing territory can affect a hawk's food supply.
2. Although February is too early for Red-tailed Hawks to breed, it's possible that a male may have made advances on an unreceptive female. Since females of most raptors are nontrivially larger than males, I'd expect the female to win that sort of encounter 9 out of 10 times.

Much of the fight looked like this, where there was only a clear view of 1 hawk. The hawk in front is facing away from us and in some sort of combat crouch.

February 13, 2019 at Murray Hill

This was the clearest evidence that this wasn't a friendly encounter.

February 13, 2019 at Murray Hill
Photo 31550613, (c) jpviolette, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC)

Before the fight ended, another interesting thing happened; yet another hawk flew in. Initially I thought the incoming hawk might be a mate of one of the battling hawks, and that perhaps the tide of the battle was about to change. But the 3rd hawk merely played the part of a spectator, flying off without engaging with either hawk.

I'm now thinking that the 3rd hawk was a completely different species, a Cooper's Hawk. Maybe the Cooper's Hawk likes to watch fights among quasi-rivals [2], or just wanted to know what was going on in its neighborhood.

February 13, 2019 at Murray Hill
Photo 31550649, (c) jpviolette, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC)

[1] You'd recognize it from movies; most "eagle calls" in movies are actually using the more impressive Red-tailed Hawk calls.

[2] Though Red-tailed Hawks and Cooper's Hawks are both predators, they're not pure rivals. Cooper's Hawks specialize in hunting small birds. While Red-tailed Hawks would happily eat a small bird, most small birds are too quick and agile to be the mainstay of a Red-tail's diet.