New York City's red-tailed hawks all seem to be in their nests waiting for eggs to hatch, so it's time to review the nesting sites in Manhattan for the season. Last year there were eleven known red-tail nests in Manhattan, ten of which are known to have fledged a total of about 23 baby hawks.
This year, all eleven sites have been confirmed active, although two of the actual nests have moved, one by just 30 feet but the other by around 500 yards. It also looks like there is one new Manhattan nest site for 2015 to make it a round dozen. This checklist will be updated if any others are reported.
| Location | Since | |
| 1. | East Village | 2014 |
| 2. | NYU/Washington Square | 2011 |
| 3. | C.P. Sheep Meadow | 2014 |
| 4. | Fifth Ave. at 74th St. | 1995 |
| 5. | CPW/Beresford | 2015 |
| 6. | West End Ave./80s | 2008/2012 |
| 7. | St. John the Divine | 2006 |
| 8. | CCNY Shepard Hall | bef. 2006 |
| 9. | J. Hood Wright Park | 2012 |
| 10. | Gorman Park | 2014 |
| 11. | Highbridge/Swindler Cove | bef. 2007 |
| 12. | Inwood Hill Park | bef. 2004 |
Of the twelve nest sites, three are in trees and nine are on buildings. Of that latter group, three are on fire escapes, two on window ledges, one on an air conditioner, and three attached to other exterior decoration or ledge.
Working from south to north, the nests are:
East Village/Tompkins Square Park/Ageloff Towers:
Tompkins Square was for several years a reliable spot to find juvenile hawks during winter. In 2014 it finally got its own nesting pair of adults, who built on an air conditioner on the Christadora building at the corner of Avenue B and East 9th St. Three babies were successfully raised by Dora and Christo. However, the nest was removed in February 2015 as the building prepared for exterior renovations, and the hawks have moved a few blocks southwest to an air conditioner at the Ageloff Towers at Avenue A and 3rd St. This is not the best spot as there is no nice green space just across the street. The first egg was laid about March 24.
+ For more about this nest, follow the
Gog in NYC blog.
+ Webcam footage of the nest is available on UStream
Greenwich Village/NYU/Washington Square:
This downtown nest was first constructed in 2011 on a window ledge at NYU's Bobst Library, outside the university president's office and overlooking Washington Square Park. This site has vied with the Fifth Ave. nest for Manhattan's earliest hatch site. The male since the nest was first built has been Bobby, named for the Bobst library. There is a new female in 2015 whom some have named Sadie, replacing Rosie who disappeared in late summer or autumn 2014. The first egg was confirmed in the nest on March 25.
+ For more about this nest, follow the
Urban Hawks and
roger_paw blogs.
Central Park/Sheep Meadow:
After a couple of years of adult red-tail activity in the Plaza Hotel area and around the southeast corner of Central Park, a pair of hawks built a nest inside the park in 2014 in a tree on the east side of the Sheep Meadow. Despite all the human activity that was going on just below once the weather got warm, they successfully raised two babies.
Fifth Ave./74th St.:
Possibly the most famous hawk nest in the world, located on a ritzy Fifth Ave. co-op apartment building overlooking the Central Park Boat Pond. Although there was rapid turnover in the female hawks at the nest in recent few years (a disappearance, a case of rat-poisoning, and who knows what else), the constant is that Palemale has ruled this area of Central Park for about 20 years. Since 2013, the female has been Octavia. After a long dry spell, there have been baby hawk hatches here since 2011. In 2015, Octavia began brooding sometime before March 29.
+ For more about this nest, follow the PaleMale.com website and
Urban Hawks blog.
Central Park West/Beresford:
There is often a fair amount hawk activity along Central Park West in winter (particularly to the north) and there was apparently a new pair of red-tails hanging around the Beresford apartments at 81st St. last year, where famous Palemale and his mate often used to perch. (They may have been the duo who tried to nest around 91st St. back in 2013.) No nest came about last year, but in early April, it was confirmed that the new hawks were nesting at the Beresford, with the nest high up in the oval window ledge of the southeast tower, overlooking CPW and the park.
Riverside Park/West End Ave./West 80s:
Red-tails have nested in the vicinity of Riverside Park and 79th St. since 2008, with the first pair of hawks preferring trees near the river close to the Boat Basin cafe. The current pair moved the nest inland and north in 2012, choosing a spot high up on a fire escape on the back side of a West End Ave. apartment building in the 80s. One baby hawk fledged from here in 2014.
Morningside Heights/Cathedral of St. John the Divine:
Although there was a nesting attempt in 2000, hawks are only known to have nested at "St. John the Unfinished" since 2006. Despite construction of a new apartment building going on just 50 yards from the nest site, they have returned for another go-round in 2015. However, the old nest site was getting very cramped, and either that or the construction has presumably prompted the hawks to move sticks to a new location about 30 feet from the old. The new nest is at the east end of the cathedral in the turret above the big statue of St. Peter on the apse wall (look for the statue holding a set of keys), overlooking Morningside Drive and Morningside Park. The male hawk is believed to be the male who first arrived in 2008 and is known as Norman. The new female in 2015 is Madeleine; she replaces the female who died of frounce last June.
There used to be a red-tail nest on Randalls Island just outside Icahn Stadium, but the hawks abandoned the site before the 2014 nesting season. Probably this was because of harassment from the peregrine falcons who nest atop the psychiatric center to the south.
(Ed note: We insert here a nest in Morningside Heights/Grant's Tomb. Although there were rumors of adult hawks in this area in mid-spring, we did not learn that there was a nest at this location until early July.)
Hamilton Heights/CCNY/Shepard Hall:
There has been a nest located on a gargoyle high up the east side of CCNY's Shepard Hall, overlooking St. Nicholas Terrace and St. Nicholas Park, for a decade or more. It's a tough nest to watch because it's so high up, and often one never hears whether baby hawks were fledged here. Last year's activity was particularly odd and some of us wondered if the nest had failed.
Washington Heights/Wright Park:
Entering its fourth season, this fire escape nest site overlooks J. Hood Wright Park on Fort Washington Ave. For safety reasons, the nest has been removed each year after the baby hawks have fledged, but the adults keep returning and rebuilding. New sticks were already in place this year in early February. The first two years, the Wright Park hawks were late nesters. In 2014 they moved their schedule up and were one of the earliest, fledging three babies.
Fort George/Gorman Park/Fairview Ave.:
New in 2014 was a fire escape nest just north of Gorman Park along Fairview Ave., overlooking Broadway and the southern Dyckman Valley area. The northwest part of the Gorman hawks' range includes Fort Tryon Park. Despite it being the first time for this site, the hawks successfully fledged three babies. In 2015, it looks like this nest could be the earliest to see a hatch, as three eggs were confirmed in the nest by March 22.
Highbridge Park/Swindler Cove:
The Highbridge hawks are tree-nesters, and they have had a tendency to move around, albeit within the same general area. Twice the move has been caused by damage to a nesting tree by a winter storm. Nevertheless, it looks like their 2015 nest is the same spot they've used the previous two years, directly above the park path near the three-way intersection of Harlem River Drive, Tenth Ave., and Dyckman St., and directly across HRD from Swindler Cove Park. Although not high up, it is difficult to get a good sightline on, especially once the trees start leafing out. The nest fledged one baby hawk in 2014, possibly two. The nesting pair here are known as Martha and George, as their nest locations in 2006-2009 were up the hill closer to George Washington High School.
Inwood Hill Park:
The hawk nest in Inwood is one of the oldest in the Manhattan, possibly the oldest. Certainly it was well established by 2004. Except for 2013, the nest has apparently always been in one of the trees in the ravine south of the playing field and close to Shorrakapoch Rock. (The one year of nesting elsewhere was likely caused by great horned owls also nesting in the ravine at the time.) Inwood used to be the first nest to hatch every year, but more recently it has followed the Washington Square and Fifth Ave. nests by a few days.
Mid-season updates to this checklist were posted here (1), here (2), here (3), and here (4).
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