# Group Of 38 Hawks!!!!



## Pigeondude100 (Aug 4, 2011)

Hey guys,
This morning while I was eating breakfast, my neighbor rang my doorbell and told me to lock up my pigeons if I had them open. I asked him why and he simply told me to look up. When I did, I was terrified to see a huge group of red tailed hawks circling my neighborhood. Since they were big, it was easy to count all 38 of them. Is this normal? Are they migrating or what? After 15 minutes of circling, they slowly moved away but i am still terrified.
Please Help Me!!
38 HAWKS WHAT THE HECK!!!


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## Jaye (Mar 13, 2008)

The obvious advice: Keep 'em inside for a while...

I would imagine they are migrating but never have heard of this before. Did anyone track them ? Where they might have gone off to ?


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## MaryOfExeter (Sep 30, 2007)

Are you sure they were red tails? Vultures like to flock together in large groups. Especially right now. Hawks are usually solitary other than when they hunt in pairs or when they have their kids with them. They could be migrating, although Red tails stay year-round in every state of the US except a few bordering canada, in which they only stay there in the Summer. A few along the edges of Mexico and the very teeny tiny tip of Texas only stay in the Winter. So yes, you could have some coming through from up North that will be wintering in Mexico.


Also, what kinds of pigeons do you keep? Red tails are slow and cannot catch homers very easily.


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## conditionfreak (Jan 11, 2008)

Not doubting you, but any number near 38 hawks would be astounding. "Flocking" together. I have never heard of more than four together, and I assumed those were a family.

But I do have a pair of Coopers and a pair of Red Tails that live on my property of ten acres. I have seen them in the close proximity circling. So, anything is possible I guess. Or "of course".


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## Pigeondude100 (Aug 4, 2011)

MaryOfExeter said:


> Are you sure they were red tails? Vultures like to flock together in large groups. Especially right now. Hawks are usually solitary other than when they hunt in pairs or when they have their kids with them. They could be migrating, although Red tails stay year-round in every state of the US except a few bordering canada, in which they only stay there in the Summer. A few along the edges of Mexico and the very teeny tiny tip of Texas only stay in the Winter. So yes, you could have some coming through from up North that will be wintering in Mexico.
> 
> 
> Also, what kinds of pigeons do you keep? Red tails are slow and cannot catch homers very easily.


Hello, 
They may have been some different type of hawks mixed because I saw some with bright red tails and some with just black tails. I keep Iranian highflyers,tipplers, and jacobins. One of my jacobins was actually hit last week by a red tail, but fortunetly the hawk dropped him down the street and he hid between two ac units where the hawk couldn't get him until the house owners caught him and returned him. He had quite a few feathers plucked but no blood. I know that the hawk that attacked last week was a young red tail because i was within 10 feet of it before it took of with the pigeon.
BTW 25 more hawks just passed above my house, all going in the same direction of the group before them.
Thanks for the help!


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## cubanlofts (Sep 3, 2010)

hawks are solitary birds, sometimes u will see a mated pair, with a couple of younguns, that belong to them, but 38 hawks flying toguether is nothing i ve ever heard of, they r territorial too, so maybe u guys saw something else, if u really saw 38, they were migrating, ?were they moving south when they flew away, if not, those were not hawks, hwaks r moving south now, expect some of them around, they r territorial to the point of keeping up to 5 miles square on the season, I dont lock my birds in the hawk season, i just release at different hours, but hawks r a great resource to pigeon owners as they trimm the slow birds.


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## Pigeondude100 (Aug 4, 2011)

cubanlofts said:


> hawks are solitary birds, sometimes u will see a mated pair, with a couple of younguns, that belong to them, but 38 hawks flying toguether is nothing i ve ever heard of, they r territorial too, so maybe u guys saw something else, if u really saw 38, they were migrating, ?were they moving south when they flew away, if not, those were not hawks, hwaks r moving south now, expect some of them around, they r territorial to the point of keeping up to 5 miles square on the season, I dont lock my birds in the hawk season, i just release at different hours, but hawks r a great resource to pigeon owners as they trimm the slow birds.


Hey,
They were all traveling in one solid direction. I am pretty sure they are hawks becuase I have seen them up close and flying above when they try to snatch one of my pigeons in the air.
Thanks


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## A_Smith (Aug 8, 2006)

Sounds like an awsome sight.  Hope you have a camera ready next time they fly by.


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## AZCorbin (Feb 28, 2011)

Well I hope they left your area.
Here is a picture I took a week ago of 6 Harris Hawks about 100 feet away from our lofts.

_Take not of the Morning Dove casually sitting in front of them._


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## loftkeeper (Sep 21, 2010)

Starting In August We Had Hundreds Of Hawks In The Pastures Getting Grasshoppers Yes Grasshoppers This Was The Second Time This Had Happened In The Last Two Years. Now To The Proof Of What Has Happened A Friend Found One On The Road Stopped To Pick It Up Took It To A Wild Life Rehab The Bird Was Starveing His Wife Held It While They Fed It It Was So Weak Could Not Fight So They Are Young And With The Drought Nothing To Eat So Do Not Think This Is A Joke


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## First To Hatch (Jul 19, 2009)

I've seen like 15 hawks near a river circling and moving slowly figured they were migrating. A club member said hes seen 30 near his river front property migrating.


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## Crazy Pete (Nov 13, 2008)

Broad-winged Hawk - Buteo platypterus , is a small hawk 43 cm long and weighing 450 g. Adults have short broad wings, dark brown upperparts and evenly-spaced black and white bands on the tail. These birds are a long distance migrants, wintering from southern Florida through Central to Peru and northern Brazil. They travel in large flocks during migration. These birds wait on a perch and swoop down on prey, also sometimes flying in search of prey. They mainly eat small mammals, amphibians, reptiles, small birds and large insects. This is a very common hawk in Michigan, generally seen in large groups migrating early fall.

I googled Broad Winged hawk And this is what I found.
Dave


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## conditionfreak (Jan 11, 2008)

That is an awesome pic. But I am not familiar with Harris Hawks.

Some told me that they have seen Kestrels in my neighborhood. I have never seen one in my life.


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## yellowking (Feb 25, 2008)

Migration Season.


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## Nomad_Lofts (Apr 12, 2011)

I myself have seen this display about 3 weeks ago while waiting for birds to return from a race I along with my mentor observed 2 groups of maybe 5 -7 birds each and then from a totally different direction we saw over 12 birds all were circling and headed south


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## atvracinjason (Mar 4, 2010)

AZ CORBIN I count seven...and I wonder how that dove can even fly with those brass balls


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## Bluecheckard (Jun 23, 2008)

I believe this because I have witness the same thing last week. but the group of red tail hawk that I saw circling around the top of our house was only 20.


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## AZCorbin (Feb 28, 2011)

atvracinjason said:


> AZ CORBIN I count seven...and I wonder how that dove can even fly with those brass balls


7? 3 wires on the pole. Top wire has 3, second wire 2, and bottom wire has 1.
These Harris' are weak and don't even try to go after these birds. We have a large dove population.


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