BirdBlog -- 1 January 2020

Hawk and Squirrel

1 January 2020

Up on the Great Hill in Central Park, I spied a red-tailed hawk high up in a tree. I snapped a few photos, after which it took flight. I moved to see what tree it was going to, but instead it alit on the ground. A few seconds later, I saw that it had caught a squirrel. The bird stood over its prey for several minutes, sometimes stretching out one or both wings, as if to shield its dinner from others, a behavior known as mantling. (Thanks for the tip, Ariya!.) It did that for more than seven minutes before hopping off with the squirrel.