Red-Tailed Hawk Chicks; Question on Crying Habits (1 Viewer)

[Kait_C]

I'm pretty sure there is a nest of at least two Red-Tailed Hawk chicks (older than 11 weeks judging by the sound of their cries) living close-by. They're crying very often, so much that I'm beginning to worry that the parents are gone/have been killed? They may be up to half a mile away, but I haven't seen any parents. I've seen other hawks in the area, but none around the nesting site.

Crows like to gang up on hawks in this region (a subsurb of Pittsburgh, PA with lots of wooded areas), and there are also owls, so I am afraid that one or more of the parents have been picked off somehow.

They used to cry sometimes, and now it's constant and very desperate sounding. Is that normal?

 

[jmepler]

Hi and welcome to the forum.

Red-tailed Hawks typically fledge at 42-46 days. When the young are ready to fledge the adults will sometimes land nearby with food to encourage the nestlings to take flight.

The young will often beg quite loudly hoping to be fed.

Mike

 

[fugl]

By "older than 11 weeks"' do you mean 11 weeks after hatching or 11 weeks after you first heard the cries, which would normally be some days after fledging? In either case, bird of prey fledglings tend to be very persistent beggars and always sound desperate.

 

[Kait_C]

I have never seen the hawklings, but by the sound of their cries, they are not fresh chicks, but they are not grown adults. The cries seem to be coming from the same location, so I am guessing that they are still in the nest. I was just wondering if it was normal for it to be going on so often. I've been hearing them very consistantly for about two weeks now, but even then they did not sound very young.

We get a lot of hawks in this area and a lot of nesting, but I've never heard them being so persistant.

I was worried about them staying alone in a nest and concerned about them being eaten or people harming them. But if it is a normal behavior, I'm very relieved

Thank you very much for the info!