Red-shouldered Hawk 2

HOME INVASION!

Imagine enjoying a peaceful Sunday afternoon at home when a 35-mph feathered cannonball crashes through your closed kitchen window. We received a request for aid from the Berkeley Police Dept after this beautiful adult Red-shouldered Hawk, undoubtedly pursuing a potential prey bird, smashed through a glass pane and ended up flying around in a second-story apartment. Window strikes are often fatal to birds, but this large (presumed) female survived with little damage except a long laceration on one wing. We captured her, stanched the bleeding, checked her for other injuries, and decided to keep her overnight for recovery and observation, in accord with our US Fish and Wildlife permit and Cal Fish & Wildlife agreement. The following morning she was alert and feisty, so was driven back to Berkeley, and after release outdoors next to the apartment she broke into, she perched for a while in a high tree to get her bearings. After about ten minutes, she eagerly flew away to resume her life in the East Bay (hopefully to breed this spring). Vividly colored, and noisy nesters, Red-shouldered Hawks have robust breeding populations in the Bay Area. Our thanks to the human apartment dwellers and the responding Berkeley Police and Dispatch officers who contacted us for this rescue.