Dancing in the Sky Birds Take to the Air in March to Woo Their Mates by Sheryl DeVore
Red-Tailed Hawk
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Photo by Vic Berardi
ne of the most exciting things for raptor lovers to see in early spring is the courtship flight display of the red-tailed hawk, according to Vic Berardi, founder of the Illinois Beach State Park Hawkwatch, in Zion (Facebook group: Illinois Beach State Park Hawkwatch). Berardi, of Gurnee, has watched red-tailed hawk pairs soar, dive and follow each other in the sky year-round, but especially when mating season arrives in March. Some might experience the hawks fly toward each other, interlock their outstretched talons and spin in a dizzying circle before releasing their talons. It’s the natural world’s version of Dancing with the Stars—and those living in the Chicago region can experience red-tailed hawks court in the sky by day, as well as the common birds called American woodcocks performing aerial displays at dusk. “Red-tailed hawks remain paired throughout the year, and these displays can 42
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be seen even in fall,” says Berardi. “We’ve had a pair at Illinois Beach State Park that frequently put on a courtship display of diving and twisting hundreds of feet above ground.” The birds also give loud screams in the sky, alerting humans to their presence. Berardi says courtship displays can be observed in open areas around preserves, parks and even in urban settings. Laurel Ross, research associate at The Field Museum (FieldMuseum.org), in Chicago, says she’s observed a pair of red-tailed hawks courting at Crab Tree Nature Center (fpdcc.com/places/locations/ crabtree-nature-center), in Palatine, this winter, and notes they had nested in a tree there in the past. She watched as the female and male took turns sitting in a tree next to one another and then one of them would fly off, daring the other to chase it. “They were frolicking. They were having a great time,” Ross says. “We watched for them to grasp talons, but we didn’t see that. It was like they
were flirting with each other.” Ross planned to return to the center in March to watch more courtship displays and see if the hawks grasped talons as nesting season commences. Red-tailed hawks have a fan-shaped tail in flight, which is red in adults, but not immature birds. Living year-round in the Chicago region, the red-tailed hawks court and build large, bulky stick nests or add material to old nests in deciduous trees in early spring. The female lays two to four brown, blotched eggs that hatch in about four weeks. Both sexes incubate the eggs and feed the young until they leave the nest in about six weeks. In summer and fall, we may see red-tailed hawk young screaming at their parents to feed them, even if they are capable of catching their own prey, which includes voles, mice, rabbits, chipmunks and snakes. Another rite of spring for nature lovers is watching and listening to American woodcocks court in short, wet grasses next to woodlands and shrublands. Woodcocks be-
