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Four Red-shouldered Hawk Fledglings Leave Nest for First Time



This has been an exciting week for the four young Red-shouldered Hawks in
the nest in the Hickory Tree in our yard in Chapel Hill.  Since this is a
quite successful brood so far, we'd like to record the events day-by-day:
On Tuesday, May 23 (the 28th day from the hatching of the first chick), we
noted that all four young hawks had almost fully developed their juvenile
plumage.  The feathers at the top of the head seemed to come last, but by
this day three had brown streaky heads, and one seemed about two or three
days behind, and now had a blotchy brown head.  Otherwise, they all seemed
ready to fly, but none had yet left the nest.  For the first time we saw
them taking turns standing on the edge of the nest, flapping their wings
vigorously, and jumping up and down 4 or 5 inches.  They spent a lot of time
preening, and despite the crowded conditions on the nest still seemed to get
along quite amicably.
On Thursday, May 25 (the 30th day) we saw one of the young hawks jump about
three feet up on to one of the branches that formed the fork for the nest,
and after awhile jump back down to the nest.
Friday, May 26 (the 31st day) was the big day.  When we first looked in the
morning, 3 of the young hawks were in the nest, and 1 was missing.  It must
have jumped along one of the branches out of sight.  In the evening we saw 1
still in the nest, but the other three were now out of the nest.  One was
only 3 or 4 feet from the nest; the other two were much bolder.  They were
jumping and flapping their wings, jumping from branch to branch, and both
eventually flew to nearby trees (1 hickory and 1 pine) about 50 feet away.
Their flying seemed strong, their landings needed some practice.  One hawk,
presumably the youngest one, stayed in the nest, but that meant it had the
first go at food brought in by the adults.  We saw it try to swallow a small
mole, all in one piece, but the young hawk eventually gave up, held the mole
down and tore it up with its beak to eat it in a proper manner!  
Saturday, May 27 (the 32nd day).  All four were away from the nest this
morning, but we found them all sitting on various branches in the nesting
tree 10 to 20 feet from the nest.  The nest is in a three-pronged fork in a
Shagbark Hickory, with the nest about 60 to 65 ft. high.  They all stayed up
at that height, about 60 to 70 ft., with two of them flying to trees about
50 ft away, which took 5 wingflaps of very solid, coordinated flying.  All
four have now been seen flying from branch to branch.  When we looked around
3:00 p.m. this afternoon, all four were back at the nest, and they seemed to
have just finished a meal (their gullets all puffed up). 
We presume that the first egg or eggs were hatched on Wednesday, April 26,
because we saw the mother fussing with something underneath her.  We saw the
first two chicks on April 27, a 3rd was visible on April 28, and all four
were clearly seen on April 29, but we cannot be exactly sure of the sequence
of hatching; the last one could be two days or so behind the first one.  So
at least three had left the nest by the 31st day, with the last one leaving
on the 32nd day.  At least two were clearly flying by the 31st day, and all
four were flying by the 32nd day.  Ehrlich, The Birder's Handbook (1988,page
230) gives a range for "time to fledging" for Red-shouldered Hawks, of 39 -
45 days.  Perhaps this range should be extended at the lower end to 31 days.
The definition of "fledging" (David M. Bird, "The Bird Almanac," 1999) is
"acquisition of first true feathers by a young bird."  These four hawks seem
to have their full juvenile plumage, and are all now rapidly expanding their
universe.  One other note:  this brood of hawks has been raised in a
neighborhood which also has Barred Owls, who may very well also be breeding,
who can be heard very clearly each day from the Hawks' nest. 

Alan & Sally Johnston
Chapel Hill, NC
agj@rti.org