Hawk or Falcon? You Decide!

This raptor, spotted at Brooklyn's Green-Wood Cemetery, is evidently a Red-Tail (although he looks a lot like a Peregrine to me!)

Stefan Woltmann, at Tulane University's Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, informed me via e-mail that I may have misidentified one of the raptors featured in a recent photo essay titled Marauding Falcon Nearly Ruins Brooklyn Parrots' Labor Day Celebration.
According to Mr. Woltmann, only the first photo in the Photo-Essay is of a Peregrine; the others are of a Red-Tailed Hawk. I defer to his judgement on this matter (I know parrots a lot better than raptors).

An obvious question arises: since these two raptors showed up within seconds of each other, does that mean they're hunting together? While Mr. Woltmann notes that there may be definite benefits to attacking the same flock at the same time, cooperative hunting among raptors is not typical. He also notes that there are plenty of migrating Peregrines and Red-Tails at this time of year.

Of course, from a monk parrot perspective, the fewer raptors around, the better. Let's hope these bad boys move along sometime soon.


"Sentinel Five to Quaker Command: I count one, make that two Extreme Bogies at 2:00 O'Clock High! Scramble the flock and prepare to fire!"


"Fire Team to Sentinel Five - tracking and ready, sir!" (Photo Credit: Mark Johnson)