Cathedral Hawk Nest History

(First posted 2012-11-08. Last updated 2023-10-24.)

The table and notes below detail the chronology of the red-tailed hawks who nested at the Cathedral of St. John the Divine from 2006 through 2021.

During this time, the hawks nested in two locations at the east end of the cathedral. During 2006-2014 (but skipping 2009), the nest was in an alcove behind the shoulders of the large statue of St. Andrew on the apse wall. From 2015 through 2021, the nest was in the turret above the nearby large statue of St. Peter. Previously, there was a failed nesting attempt reported "somewhere" at the cathedral in 2000. In 2022, the hawks seem to have "picked up sticks" and moved to a new nest site on the Columbia University campus, where they have now nested for two seasons.

As of the end of the 2021 nesting season, there had been 31 or 32 known hatches at the cathedral nests since 2006, and 28 young hawks had fledged (flown from) the nest. What happened to most of the young birds after they "left home" is unknown and cannot be known. We do know that four or five fledglings suffered injury or sickness soon after leaving the nest and were rescued and taken to wildlife rehabilitation. Two of these rescues had to be euthanized, one was committed to a wildlife sanctuary, and the other one or two were eventually released.

After the nest site shifted from the alcove behind St. Andrew to the turret above St. Peter, successful hatches and fledging of baby hawks plunged. The exposed (to weather) location of the second location seems a likely explanation for some/much of the decline, but there may also been a change in fertility when a new male hawk appeared in 2018.

The adult hawks nesting at the cathedral have not been the same pair over the duration that this history details. There have been at least three females (Isolde, Madeleine, unnamed, ...) and at least three males (Tristan, Norman, Wyatt, ...).

Year	Adults	1st Hatch	Nestlings	Fledges	Notes
2006	Isolde & Tristan	Apr. 27?	2 (3?)	June 12 June 16	1, 2, 3
2007	Isolde & Tristan	Apr. 27	3	June 12 (46d) June 15 June 15
2008	Isolde & Norman	May 4	2	June 15 (42d) June 15	4, 5
2009	—	—	—	—	6
2010	Isolde & Norman	Apr. 18	3	June 4 (46d)	7
2011	Isolde & Norman	Apr. 26	3	June 12/13 (47d) June 12/13 June 16
2012	Isolde & Norman	Apr. 17	3	June 3 (47d) June 6 June 8
2013	Isolde & Norman (?)	Apr. 21	3	June 1/8 (41d/48d) June 5 (45d) June 9	8, 9
2014	Isolde (?) & Norman	Apr. 22	3	June 4 (43d) June 7 June 9	10, 11
2015	Madeleine & Norman	June 15-20?	1	—	12, 13, 14
2016	Madeleine & Norman	Apr. 18	3	May 27 (39d) May 30 June 2	15, 16
2017	Madeleine & Norman	May 17	3	July 2/3 (46d) July 2/3 July 5	17
2018	Madeleine & Wyatt	—	—	—	18, 19
2019	Madeleine & Wyatt	May 4	2	June 19 (46d) June 19/20	20, 21
2020	Madeleine (?) & Wyatt (?)	—	—	—	22, 23, 24
2021	(?) & Wyatt (?)	—	—	—	25, 26
2022	(?) & Wyatt (?)	—	—	—	27
2023	(?) & Wyatt (?)	—	—	—	28

The date given for first hatch is based on the first reported observation of either feeding behavior or other activity by the adult(s) that suggested that there was a baby hawk in the nest. This is likely to be a day or two after actual hatch. In one extreme case (2015), the first clue of the baby hawk's presence may not have been observed until 7-10 days after hatch. It is possible that the first evidence of a nestling in 2016 was also a few days late.

First flight (fledging) of a baby hawk from the cathedral nest was usually about 45 days after first signs of a hatch.

Notes

¹ A previous nest on the cathedral was reported in the April 2, 2000, New York Times, but a week later the newspaper reported that the male hawk had died. No further info is known about that nest site except that it was visible from St. Luke's hospital.

² Stick collecting and possible nest building at the nest site on St. Andrew's shoulders was photographed in 2004. However, a nest by Central Park's North Meadow (approx. 3/4 mile away) was reported to have successfully fledged three babies in 2004. The 2006 cathedral nest may have originated as a "secondary nest" for the Central Park hawks.

³ Regular observations by photographers of the 2006 nest did not begin until mid-May. Two photos posted on the Urban Hawks blog strongly suggest that there were three nestlings. If so, the third was spotted May 27, about four weeks after hatch, but was never seen thereafter.

⁴ Tristan is presumed to have died Feb. 21, 2008, after suffering a wing injury and becoming grounded the day of a snowstorm. Norman was first observed on Feb. 25.

⁵ One 2008 fledgling was rescued a few days after leaving the nest and was diagnosed with lead poisoning — possibly due to ingesting material from repair/replacement then occurring on the cathedral apse roof. After a few months at rehabbers, it was deemed unreleasable and was subsequently turned over to a wildlife sanctuary.

⁶ No nesting activity was seen at the cathedral location in 2009, and other hawks were often seen in the area in late March. Did Isolde and Norman not use the site because of stress from the renovation scaffolding which remained in place until early May? Did they try to nest somewhere else? Both were seen perched atop "Norman's chimney" at St. Luke's hospital on April 19 for over a half hour, suggesting they had no eggs or nestlings to worry about.

⁷ Two 2010 nestlings died before fledging, one at about three weeks after hatch and the second at about five weeks.

⁸ A hawk found dead in Central Park's North Woods after Hurricane Sandy (Oct. 29-30, 2012) was thought to have been Norman. However, the 2013 male hawk looked like Norman. It is also possible that the deceased hawk was Isolde (see note 10). Or the deceased hawk may have been a "floater" who was in the area at the time.

⁹ The first 2013 fledge was very early and was plainly a nestling who fell out of or was bumped from the nest, landing directly below in an alcove between cathedral chapels. It stayed in the alcove for seven days before venturing out. Meanwhile an elder sibling made an actual flight from the nest.

¹⁰ A sick adult hawk was rescued from the cathedral grounds on June 4, 2014, and taken to wildlife rehabbers. Despite promising signs, it died of frounce on June 18. Due to the relatively small size of the bird, it was thought to be the male, but a necropsy by state wildlife officials revealed it was a female. As Isolde had not been not considered "small" by hawkwatchers, was this a different female and if so when did she replace Isolde? Or was Isolde the hawk killed in late 2012 by Hurricane Sandy (see note 8)?

¹¹ One fledgling from the 2014 nest was rescued from the cathedral grounds on June 18, 10-14 days after leaving the nest, and found to be suffering from frounce, the same disease that killed its mother. Also, in mid-July a fledgling red-tail was rescued in northern Central Park and found to be underfed and underweight. Odds are that this hungry fledgling was one of the cathedral birds. Both of these fledglings were reported to have recovered and to have been released by rehabbers a few months later.

¹² Despite construction of the very nearby apartment building, red-tailed hawks returned to the cathedral in 2015. But likely due to increasingly cramped conditions in the St. Andrew's nest alcove, they shifted to a new nesting site about 30 feet away, in the turret above the statue of St. Peter. Stick collecting in that turret had been observed during spring 2014. It is not known when the new female hawk, Madeleine, arrived except that hospital workers had reported seeing her by mid-February 2015.

¹³ The 2015 hatch was six to eight weeks late. There was apparently a failure of the first clutch of eggs, which were laid in late March and should have hatched by the first of May. Following a series of matings observed in early May, the female laid a second clutch. Hatch date is estimated. Feeding behavior was first noted June 25, but subsequent observations indicated that the single baby was so large that it must have hatched well in advance of that date.

¹⁴ No reports were received that the single 2015 baby hawk fledged the nest, nor was a fledgling ever reported in the area around the cathedral. The nestling was last reported seen on July 24, while an observer on Aug. 1 said the nest was empty and that there was no fledgling hawk in the area. Fledging had been expected roughly Aug. 5, so it is believed that the bird died in the nest at age roughly six weeks.

¹⁵ Although the first 2016 fledge appears to have left the nest early, it did not look overly young to have done so. Instead, it seemed rather adventuresome and ambitious. It may have hatched a few days before the first observation of a feeding occurred, and so age-wise was entering the "fledging window".

¹⁶ On June 1, 2016, an injured fledgling red-tailed hawk was picked up by NYPD at or near Manhattan Ave. and 109th St., about 3-4 blocks from the cathedral nest. Presumably this was the first fledgling. Although X-rays indicated there were no broken bones, the fledge apparently suffered a spinal injury that paralyzed her legs. She was euthanized a week later as her condition continued to deteriorate.

¹⁷ The 2017 first clutch of eggs apparently laid about March 12 failed. Matings were observed early/mid-April and a second clutch laid about April 15.

¹⁸ The 2018 male has different throat feather coloring from the male of 2017 and prior years, i.e., his throat feathers were white. It is not known what happened to Norman.

¹⁹ Although it appeared in late March 2018 that the female had started brooding a clutch of eggs, in mid-April there were signs that there had been a nest failure. The hawks were observed mating on April 20, suggesting that they were making a second try. But thereafter there was no sign of the female brooding a second clutch of eggs.

²⁰ Although the first sign of hatch in 2019 appears to have been late, it also seems to have been no more than that, just simply late. Other Manhattan nests started reported hatches beginning about April 20.

²¹ The second 2019 fledgling was found grounded the afternoon of June 20 in the cathedral service area just north of the nest. It had some head trauma and was taken to veterinary care and rehab. Unfortunately, this fledgling also suffered from lead poisoning. Its condition deteriorated while it was at the rehabbers, and eventually it had to be euthanized.

²² An adult male red-tailed hawk was rescued close by in Morningside Park on March 14, 2020, but was reported to have died from injuries the following day. Although this may have been Wyatt, some evidence suggests the hawk may instead have been an interloper in the area.

²³ Photos on May 22 and 23, 2020, of what is presumed to have been the female hawk show different throat feather coloring from that of Madeleine.

²⁴ A brooding adult was observed in the nest on April 10, 2020, and as late as May 22. From May 23 on, no observations showed any hawk at the nest. Despite some very slight evidence of a possible hatch about May 10, it seems more likely that there was no hatch at all and the nesting failed.

²⁵ Observations of the adult hawks by this blog during 2021 were so limited that it was impossible to determine whether either was one of the hawks from 2020. However, other observers have indicated their belief that the 2021 (and possibly 2022) male was Wyatt.

²⁶ Brooding of eggs at the nest in 2021 was not observed until April 23, roughly the same week as some other nests in Manhattan reported first hatch. Hatch was thus expected roughly May 23, but observations of the nest on that date saw no hawks of any age in the nest. A third-hand observation from about May 10 suggests that the female may have had an injury and possibly died.

²⁷ The SJD nest was empty of a brooding mother during visits in April and May. It seems probable that the 2021 male and a new female were the birds who instead nested about 0.2 miles away on a balcony on John Jay Hall overlooking the main quad of the Columbia University campus. Two babies fledged from that nest, although at least one of them subsequently died of frounce.

²⁸ Despite early season reports from neighborhood dogwalkers of hawk activity around the cathedral, there was no hawk nesting there. As it turned out, hawks had instead returned to Columbia University, nesting on the clock alcove high on the south side of Havemeyer Hall. They fledged three young birds.

6/1, St. John the Divine

Circumstantial evidence accumulated last week indicating that there had been a hatch at the red-tailed hawk nest at St. John the Divine. The mother could be seen fussing around for extended periods, resting on the side of the nest rather than down in the bowl, etc. Then this past Sunday, Urban Hawks captured some video of a feeding in which the fuzzy head of a baby hawk was visible through the nest sticks.

But that video was shot with a long lens from the far side of Morningside Park, How long until a viewer — with binoculars perhaps — could stand below the nest and see the baby? Well, that was Thursday.

Mama Madeleine was fussing about a bit when I arrived, but then she settled down toward the back left of the nest.

This was looking like it could be dull, with any baby hawks probably sleeping off a meal. But then there were some brief glimpses of the top of a fuzzy head moving about.

Not much of a sighting, but it lasted a minute or two and it was definite.

The baby quieted down, and all there was to see was Madeleine watching the area.

A last look back at the nest from a couple blocks up the street revealed that papa Norman had swung by for a visit. It seemed he was looking down at something white and fuzzy, and I debated whether there was other to his right.

The baby hawk(s) will be getting bigger and stronger so sightings will get easier over the next week or two. Benchmarks to watch for will be sightings of them flapping their wings and the appearance of their first real feathers, as well as getting a reliable count of how many nestlings there are. As it seems first hint of a hatch was roughly May 17 or 18, then fledging could occur about Independence Day,

5/1, Around the Heights

On the first of May, the story at the two red-tailed hawk nests in Morningside Heights is quite different.

At Grant's Tomb, eggs have hatched and the two nestlings are roughly two weeks old. Old enough that on a nice evening, mama is willing to leave them snoozing on their own in the nest while she perches across the street.

Over at the Cathedral of St. John the Divine, however, it appears that the hawks had an early nest failure and have "re-clutched". There the mama has been visible but barely so, her head poking up just a few inches above the nest as she broods a second clutch of eggs.

If things do go well for the cathedral nest on the re-try, it looks to be about another two weeks before we see signs of a hatch. So call it May 15.

4/20, St. John the Divine

The situation at the red-tailed hawk nest at the Cathedral of St. John the Divine remains confusing. One or both of the hawks has usually been in view somewhere in the general area when I have visited in the last couple weeks, but Thursday evening was the first I had seen one of them at the actual nest in a while. (Note: Pictures were taken Friday, 4/14.) However, it was just a three-minute visit, with no switch-off or fussing around in the nest bowl.

4/6, St. John the Divine

Even as it looked as if hatch watch should start at the red-tailed hawk nest at the Cathedral of St. John the Divine, Thursday's hawk sighting suggested that we need to reset the clock back to zero.

No hawk was visible when I first checked the nest late Thursday, but walking up Morningside Drive, I spotted one flying by. Perhaps the male Norman on the hunt. But then I noticed a hawk perched atop Columbia's East Campus dorm at 117th St. and moments later, two of them up there.

Uh-oh, hawks mating, four weeks after their behavior indicated that they had an egg in the nest. Mating can continue for a few days or a week after first egg is in the nest, but four weeks?

They remained perched alongside each other afterwards. Norman scanning the skies, while Madeleine preened.

Norman gave it another seven or eight minutes — the weather was pretty nice — but eventually flew off. Madeline was still up there a bit later when I departed to go check if there was anything happening at the Grant's Tomb nest (which there wasn't).

So assuming that there has been a failure of the first clutch at the St. John's hawk nest, and also assuming that the hawks are preparing for a second clutch, we are now looking at any possible hatch being delayed until mid or late May.

4/3, St. John the Divine

It's a few days short of four weeks since we observed behavior suggesting that the female red-tailed hawk at the Cathedral of St. John the Divine could be brooding an egg. So hatch watch is commencing. It's possible that we could see first feeding behavior come the weekend, although middle next week seems more likely.

The same story holds at the Grant's Tomb nest, where first brooding behavior was observed about the same time.

One note of caution: The current cathedral nest is much more exposed than the nest of 2006-2014, so one has to worry a bit that the nasty weather of the past couple weeks (the snow storm two weeks ago, but especially last Friday's deluge) might reduce the likelihood of success. By success, I mean a trio of three baby hawks, as the cathedral site has enjoyed so many times.

Meanwhile, no one has reported running into the lonesome bachelor hawk of Riverside in the 110s in close to two weeks. Perhaps he has decided it was time to move on and look for love in some other place.

3/10, Around the Heights

Word has begun to roll in of Manhattan's female red-tailed hawks overnighting in their nests, an activity they will engage in not long before the first egg is laid. At one site, possible brooding has already been reported. On Friday evening, it looked like the two nests in Morningside Heights were among this group.

At St. John the Divine about 15 minutes before sunset, what appeared to be a hawk head was just visible above the edge of the nest. Possibly it was a piece of bark poking up, but there were solid arguments that it was actually a hawk.

First, whatever was poking up also moved about — not just from side to side as you might expect in a breeze but also dropping down a couple times.

But more importantly, on Thursday at about the same time, the two St. John's hawks performed what looked like a switch-off at the nest. That is: a hawk who had been perched on the hospital roof flew over to the nest, the other hawk then got up from the nest and left, and the first hawk plunked down into the nest. If it was indeed a switch-off, then it also means that the St. John's nest likely has egg(s) in it — a week earlier than it has in the past.

Up at Grant's Tomb, there have been reports all week about the female either being busy in the nest or else lurking close by. Friday at sunset, it wasn't immediately clear whether she was up there. Something like tail feathers were poking up from the nest, but I've seen that before and it turned out no hawk was there.

But 15 minutes later after darkness was setting in, and the cold had prodded me to head south, I looked back to see that the female was definitely up there. She had stood up to make some adjustments to the nest contents.

If the Grant's Tomb nest was on the same schedule as last year, then this weekend was about the right time for an egg to be laid. Possibly that's already happened, but possibly the female is still just doing an overnight.

Elsewhere, the bachelor hawk of Riverside Park was spotted by a couple people early Tuesday evening, lurking about his usual haunts in the 113th-114th St. area.

3/1, St. John the Divine

it's two months into the year, so about time for a post about the hawks at the Cathedral of St. John the Divine, no? Conveniently enough, I made my first sighting in 2017 of the red-tail couple on Wednesday about 15 minutes before sunset, and they left no doubt that they were getting ready for nesting and egg-laying.

Madeleine was perched across 113th St. on one of the rooftops of St. Luke's hospital. Initially I was a little confused about who it was up there because I had forgotten how dark her coloring is compared to many of the other adult red-tailed hawks around Manhattan.

About five minutes later, Norman flew in from the east, and within two seconds, a mating commenced.

That lasted about 9-10 seconds.

Norman hopped off and perched along Madeleine for a bit. But then, 59 seconds after he arrived, he took off, heading southeast in the general direction of Central Park.

When will eggs be laid in the nest in the cathedral turret about St. Peter? No idea. Best guess is sometime between March 10 and 17, with the earlier date occurring if the relatively mild winter has prodded the hawks to start early.

St. John's Miscellany

Hawk sightings at the Cathedral of St. John the Divine have been hit-and-miss over the past month. It has again been three weeks since I have seen any of this year's kids in the area, so it would seem that if the remaining two have not got into trouble, they are no longer around. I have wondered if they migrated to the north end of Central Park, where I am less likely to visit.

In any event, following are a handful of photos from the past four weeks...

First, sightings of a fledgling perched atop the archangel Gabriel on Monday, June 27.

And two days later, a fledgling perched on the Avalon apartments at 110th and MSD, overlooking the cathedral grounds and preening.

That was the last definite sighting I made of one of the fledglings. Occasional sightings of adult hawks have occurred since then.

For example, one of the parents atop their favorite chimney/vent cover at St. Luke's hospital on Friday, July 8.

And again atop the hospital on Wednesday, July 13. This time I think it was the father, Norman.

6/24, St. John the Divine

After two weeks of frustration, unable to find one of the hawk fledglings from the Cathedral of St. John the Divine in a half dozen visits, I checked again on Friday evening. A hawk was perched on Gabriel's horn, but I'd found mama Madeleine up there a couple times last week.

Hard to tell from this angle, though, what color the tail is. Let's hope it stays there while we get round to the other side and get a look at its front.

Tawny breast, dark belly band, and a squinty near-sighted look. It's one of the two fledglings we've been looking for. Finally.

The fledge stayed in place while we wondered around the area looking for the other sibling. No luck on that front.

It had seemed to be watching the southeast, and eventually it took off flying that way. High up, almost high enough to make one think it could be heading for Central Park. But it stopped halfway there, perching atop the Cathedral Gardens dorm.

Seven or eight minutes there and it thought better of the decision. Back into the air.

Bank left.

And out of sight behind a building as it headed back in the general direction of the cathedral.

In other positive news for the day, hawkwatcher Melody A. reported that she had encountered the surviving Riverside and 116th red-tail fledgling this morning. So we know two of Morningside Heights' young hawks seem to be doing okay.

Sad Hawk News

The blog has been quiet a while, right in the middle of what should be one of the busiest times for watching young hawks. Much of that has been because I have had poor luck in finding hawk fledglings so there has been little news to report, but it's also because the news has been bad.

As you may have heard, the red-tail fledgling from the Cathedral of St. John the Divine who was injured and taken to rehab has died. She had managed to fly as far as Manhattan Ave. in the 109th-110th area and crashed. Although no broken bones were found when the vet did X-rays, the young bird had a spinal injury that left her legs paralyzed and also was causing pain. After a week in which treatment was having no effect and her condition was instead deteriorating, there was no choice but to euthanize her.

Adding to the misfortune, a few days later we learned that one of the young red-tails at the nest at Riverside and 116th St. has also died. The best guess is that this bird died of frounce, a diease caught from eating the wrong part of an infected pigeon. The hawk died at the nest; I don't know whether it the one who had not yet fledged when I last visited the site, or if it was a fledgling who had returned to the nest.

And for those who wondered why no reports about the Grant's Tomb hawk nest in so very long, it's because the one hawk nestling at that location apparently died during the last week of April, aged somewhere between two and three weeks. No one knows what happened there, just that the baby was visible in the nest the weekend of April 23 and then by late the following week could not be seen.

So it's been a bad-luck season for the three red-tailed hawk nests in Morningside Heights. We hope that the three baby hawks who were last known healthy are remaining so, and will report on them when we next get some pictures.

6/3, St. John the Divine

Friday evening, the two remaining hawk fledglings at the Cathedral of St. John the Divine were both on the north side of the crossing roof. One was at the top of the arch.

While the other was pecking at a meal, or the remains thereof, about 30 feet away on the side of the dome.

Meanwhile, mama Madeleine seemed to be searching the grounds on the south side of the cathedral, perching atop the cathedral.

And atop the Avalon condo.

Observers then and also on Saturday got the impression that she was trying to find the missing (and injured) fledgling.

6/2, St. John the Divine

The red-tailed hawk news from the Cathedral of St. John the Divine was bad and good today.

The bad news came in first, with a morning e-mail from the WINORR wildlife rehabbers that they had received a fledgling hawk picked up by NYPD around the corner of Manhattan Ave. and 109th St. (about 3-4 blocks from the nest site) sometime late yesterday. The hawkling could not stand, possibly paralyzed below the hips. They were waiting for the results of X-rays to find out how bad the injury is and whether there is any hope of trying to nurse the young hawk back to health.

The good news was that the third and last baby hawk from the cathedral nest has fledged. Another hawkwatcher reported seeing it in the nest in mid-afternoon, so fledging happened sometime between 3:00 and 7:00 today.

The first hawk sighting early Thursday evening was of a fledgling perched on the side of the crossing arch on the south side of the cathedral. It was hop-flapping its way up the blocks of the arch.

And in not very long made its way all the way to the top.

It didn't stay to admire the view, but soon turned around and started heading back the other way.

I headed around to the other side of the cathedral to check on the nest. It looked empty, but after 15 minutes I found another fledgling perched quietly on the roof of St. Luke's Hospital.

Looking uninclined to do much.

But with that time gap, maybe the first fledgling had flown across the street while I was looking around? No, back at the cathedral the first fledgling had made its way up to the crest of the copper roof above the chancel.

And shortly thereafter, mama arrived.

The fledge on the cathedral roof started working its way out toward mama.

Mostly walking but sometimes hop-flapping.

So close, but then mama flew away.