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Meet Our Birds
AlaskaAlaska is a male Swainson’s Hawk who weighs about 1 3/4 pounds and has a wingspan of 4 feet. He was shot in northern Utah (near Paradise), in 1994 and part of his left wing had to be removed, he has no primary feathers on his left wing and is not able to fly more than a few feet. He was a full adult when he was shot so he was at least 2 years old in 1994. Alaska was named because Swainson's Hawks may migrate to Argentina from as far north as Alaska making a yearly roundtrip of approximately 14,000 miles. Read about Conservation Issues for Alaska: |
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CalurusCalurus is a male Western Red-tailed Hawk who weighs about 2 1/2 pounds and has a wingspan of 4 feet. He got caught in a barbed wire fence in California in 1992. He had broken his left wing and it failed to heal properly so he is now unable to fly. He was an adult when he was injured so we believe he was hatched in 1990, if not earlier. Calurus was named for the subspecies of Western Red-tailed Hawks, Buteo jamaicensis calurus. Read about Conservation Issues for Calurus: |
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YakiYaki is a female American Kestrel who weighs about 4 ounces and has a wingspan of just over one foot. She was found on May 20, 2002 and left on the doorstep of a rehabilitator in Holladay, Utah. Yaki had injuries to her left humerus in her wing, which unfortunately did not heal correctly. She was transferred to HawkWatch on August 29, 2002. Yaki's name is a reference to the HWI research site on the south rim of the Grand Canyon and commemorates the Sept. 18, 2000 flight of 396 American Kestrels at Yaki Point. Read about Conservation Issues for Yaki: |
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GavilanGavilan is a Red-tailed Hawk who was taken from his nest in Texas in 1994. The person who took him was attempting to keep him as a pet. It is illegal to keep these birds without a permit. Three separate rehabilitators attempted to teach Gavilan to fly and hunt, however, none were successful. Gavilan had became too used to being fed by people through a process called "imprinting" and he lost his ability to hunt. He is fully capable of flight but attempts to release him into the wild have proven unsuccessful. The name Gavilan is Spanish for "hawk". It is also the name of the trail that leads to the Manzano Mountain HawkWatch site. Read about Conservation Issues for Gavilan: |
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