IF... Raptors Are Monogamous...IF... They Breed Within Their Own Species...~

I feel so blessed to have witnessed this act as well as get any photographs of same!


These hawks shown in the post entry below would be as a bird flies approximately 2.8 miles from where the Red-Shouldered/Red-tailed hybrid hawk was photographed on
February 17 and again on March 9.  The post below is not about the hybrid hawk, but 3 different hawks with something very rarely, if ever seen.


Those photographs have already been posted in previous entries.

 
Last year, when I was taking some photographs of a Red-tailed hawk nest at a different location from where the hybrid hawk was photographed, I thought that I had witnessed something peculiar, and yet, I got no photographs last season.

 In fact, I only shared it with one other person and then tucked it in my memory.

How could this be...could these 3 birds do this every year...is there some kind of bond between the three...?

IF... Raptors are monogamous...IF... They mainly breed within their own species...
What are the chances of a Red-Shouldered hawk breeding with a Red-tailed hawk, whilst the female also pairs up with a male Red-tailed hawk?

Pete Gustas had explained to me this about hybrids " The chances are slim to none. Hybrids are very unusual. In 20 + years of raptor work I know of 3 occurrences, so this is not something that happens regularly. You were very lucky in finding the one you did! " That being said, could the hybrid that I found a few weeks ago, be one that had come from this unusual pairing?




We may not have the answers and yet this was truly a very fortunate and fascinating find for me and I am so thrilled to be able to share it with each of you at this time. I am going to try and stay away from this nest site for the next couple of weeks and allow nature to take it's course. Once I am sure that the pair will not abandon the nest, then I shall catch up with them again. I am wondering now if only one male will help in the brooding and the rearing...will it be the Red-tailed hawk, or the Red-Shouldered hawk that will help with the female Red-tailed hawk? Will this nest possibly produce a Hybrid...I shall be patient and wait and see.


Here is hoping that all goes well with this nest and the activities that will be coming about in the coming days and weeks. Most assuredly, I shall keep you posted~

Last year there was only one chick and these images were taken about 2 weeks before it fledged~





One of a pair of Red-tailed Hawks, March 9, 2012~

The mate on nest last Friday, March 9, 2012~

 

Female Red-tailed hawk flying to meet with the Red-Shouldered male on Wednesday, March 14, 2012!  I beg your pardon, you might say...she wrote that wrong. 

No actually, I wrote it exactly as it happened and as you shall see~

Female Red-tailed hawk on the left landed in tree right next to the Red-Shouldered male, and then the most remarkable thing happened...

They had a very vocal breeding session! In other words, the male Red-tailed hawk, had to have been able to hear what was taking place.

What you need to know, if you do not already...

These hawks are monogamous, unless one of a breeding pair is killed, then they take up with a new partner of their own species.

A Red-tailed hawk could if it wanted to make a meal out of a Red-Shouldered Hawk.

The males in the Raptor family are smaller than the females, and  Red-Shouldered hawks are a bit smaller than the Red-tailed Hawks.

Have you got the image I am trying to convey here?

There is absolutely no doubt about what you are viewing here.  The smaller Red-Shouldered male hawk has copulated with a female Red-tailed hawk!

The mating of the 2 species of Raptors...an extraordinarily rare capture!  In fact, I could not find any information showing any other images taken of this happening with wild birds on the Internet search that I have completed to date~

The usual high pitched vocalizing of copulation was also very obvious, no hiding what took place~

  The photographs above and below are of the odd pair after the breeding session was completed. 
Above the female Red-tailed hawk is in front and the male Red-Shouldered hawk is
behind her. 
In the photograph below, you see the larger Red-tailed female behind the smaller
Red-Shouldered hawk~

The odd couple flew to the tree along side the nest tree, and stayed there for a couple of minutes before the female Red-tailed hawk flew to nest tree and left the Red-Shouldered hawk on his own~

Only a couple of minutes passed before from across the field came the male Red-tailed hawk, returning to the nest tree, along side his mate. 
I wonder what he had to say to her? 
I wonder if he admonished her for her infidelity?

 

Special note:

Since this is a very rare and special find, I would so very much appreciate your comments  for better documentation later.  In my nearly 3 years of blogging, I have never requested this, but it would be very much appreciated!

I am also linking with World Bird Wednesday, please visit other birding photographers and enthusiasts from around the world at:

http://www.pineriverreview.blogspot.com/