[Turambar]

that ****'s hardcore.

awesome.

[Flipside]

Nice photos! Thought it was a falcon at first, but the area around the beak seemed wrong....

Might be a Hawk, they are kind of like large Kites, whereas falcons are more like small Eagles iirc. The problem with Birds of Prey is that the come in such a vast variety of plumages that sometimes it's hard to tell. It could effectively be either, neither would have to go above a jog to catch a pigeon around there.

[Admiral Nelson]

Knowledgeable people tell me it is a juvenile red tailed hawk.  I was amazed to see it down in the financial district.  Really, the City should make builders put up some hawk nests -- 50 pairs could chomp through 100 pigeons a day.  I wonder if that would make a dent in the population?

[Fearless Leader]

HELLSYEAH! That is awesome! 

We need  more of that in the US!

[Herra Tohtori]

Well, we have eagle owls here at Helsinki. One lives at the Olympic Stadium...



"O Rly?"

[Rictor]

KYLLA OIKEASTAAN!

[Herra Tohtori]

EI TIETÄ!


Anyway, birds of prey kick ass.

EDIT: No, I did not mean the Romuclan War Turkeys. Smartypants.


Our home back at north is really close to an old sea bay that has been almost entirely grassed. Also, our house is literally in the middle of a real deal forest (++, except for mosquitoes on bad summers) so on spring there's a lot of traffic going on, and during the summer there's still birds everywhere. There's even a watchtower built on the sea shore less than a mile from where our house is, and when you get there on spring day with good binoculars and know what you're looking for, it's easy to get something like 50 species during forenoon. And on winter there's been occasional great grey owls and stuff. The grey owl was really impressive when it flew around our house one winter, once making an appearance right outside the window, perching on top of some skis that were put to stand on the snow. I'm not even going to go to water birds...

Hawks, buteos, ospreys, small falcons and harriers are pretty common, and then there are occasional white-tailed eagles on the move above the islands outside the coast. And then there are the bog areas on the indland, where you can see (and/or hear) pretty much anything that lives in Finland.

Sadly, here at Helsinki there's way too little raptors and owls and far too many sparrows and pigeons and ****ing seagulls that insist on starting to scream every summer morning at unholy times, often landing on top of buildings where people are supposed to be sleeping.

[Mefustae]

Anyway, birds of prey kick ass.

Yes. Yes they do.



NNNNNYYYEEEEEEEEEEOOOOOOOOOOOOOWWWWWW!!!

[Nuke]

if i had a good camera i could post some awesome pictures of the bald eagles that swarm this place. the other day i counted 8 of them in the trees out my window (leaving enough room for twice as many ravens). when the salmon are running, its not unusual to see 30 or so of them out there.

[karajorma]

Knowledgeable people tell me it is a juvenile red tailed hawk.  I was amazed to see it down in the financial district.  Really, the City should make builders put up some hawk nests -- 50 pairs could chomp through 100 pigeons a day.  I wonder if that would make a dent in the population?

I've never understood why more birds of prey haven't moved into the cities to be honest.

[MP-Ryan]

Knowledgeable people tell me it is a juvenile red tailed hawk.  I was amazed to see it down in the financial district.  Really, the City should make builders put up some hawk nests -- 50 pairs could chomp through 100 pigeons a day.  I wonder if that would make a dent in the population?

I've never understood why more birds of prey haven't moved into the cities to be honest.

Habitat.

Raptors prefer open nests with high visibility around them on all sides.  They like to be close to the highest possible point.  Skyscraper's don't lend themselves to that type of environment.

In addition, cities have little in the way of nest building materials (short of large parks, of course), and most raptors feed on small rodents and other ground-dwelling animals, not other birds.

The majority of raptor species prefer grasslands, marshes, low-density evergreen forest, and open alpine terrain for hunting, or shoreline and open water for those species that eat fish (e.g osprey).

[karajorma]

I meant more in terms of numbers rather than species. For instance peregrine falcons would do rather well in London. There are plenty of pigeons to eat and the city isn't actually that full of skyscrapers.

And the suburbs are even better for them.

[Mefustae]

And the suburbs are even better for them.

Yes, plenty of toddlers to make off with.

[Gortef]

Superb photos! Thanks for sharing. ^^

[Flipside]

And the suburbs are even better for them.

Yes, plenty of toddlers to make off with.

Judging by some of the toddlers I've seen in London, that might be a better thing than it looks....

[TrashMan]

I can see how seeing something like that is utterly amazing to big city folk.

Yup. Sure do. Me an' cousin Bubba seez those critters very often. Damn pest. Kill the chickens. Yep.


*lolz
No, really. I live in a small city that has a bit of nature perserved around it so I see wildlife more often then somone in a big city. then again, I spend half the year if not more in the big city in the vicinity, so I can understand the fascination.

[Tyrian]

Those are some really spectacular photos.  Especially the ones when it's looking right into the camera. 

[NGTM-1R]

Habitat.

Raptors prefer open nests with high visibility around them on all sides.  They like to be close to the highest possible point.  Skyscraper's don't lend themselves to that type of environment.

Yeah, but they like lightstands...

[Janos]

edit: yay everything's been answered already

Ok. The bird is a 2cy Red-Tailed Hawk (Buteo jamaicensis), meaning it was born on last year (told by uniform coverts and secondaries, no moult marks, pale and unformly worn remiges.

It's common in most of the continental North America, and has also been recorded in Europe. Common refers to visibility; large raptors are seldom, if ever, as numerous as smaller birds.

I meant more in terms of numbers rather than species. For instance peregrine falcons would do rather well in London. There are plenty of pigeons to eat and the city isn't actually that full of skyscrapers.

And the suburbs are even better for them.

The main reason for this is called pesticides. Numbers of Peregrine Falcon collapsed dramatically in 1950s-1970s, and even in sparsely-populated Northern Scandinavia numbers are only as of now slowly climbing to somewhere near the previous levels. This is actually a pretty complex thing, but the current consensus is that as long as the species is uncommon, it favours the best breeding conditions it can. Combined with raptor persecution this has dramatically shifted the fitness from bold to the shy.

So, because Peregrine is uncommon and only sloooowly recovering in Europe, it's more likely that the new pairs will nest on the more optimal areas. Also, the Peregrine Falcon genome in eastern USA is a bit of mess, introduced birds from wrong subspecies and all kinds of jazz :/

Raptors as such actually like cities. Easy food, especially in winter. Where I live, we have several courting Eagle Owls, lots of Goshawks, some Sparrowhawks, and accidentally Merlins and sometimes even large falcons. Kites favour towns and villages, and in Indian dumps you can have flocks of tens of thousands of Black Kites. Lowland towns actually have more in common with mountains than their surrounding areas. This shows in avifauna - swifts, pigeons, black redstarts..

edit: Wiki says there are Peregrines in London, dunno about that.

[karajorma]

IIRC most of them have been introduced to the area artificially rather than simply moving in on their own.