![]() If all goes well, we may capture when this occurs for this individual. These floaters drift around until they find an opportunity to breed. Ja’Marr represents what is termed as a ‘floater’, or an individual that has not yet joined the breeding population. Generally, Red-tailed Hawk do not breed until the end of their third or fourth-cycle. This makes sense, since the bird was a second-cycle at the time of capture this past winter. The lack of a centralized home range pattern suggests that Ja’Marr did not breed this summer. Ja’Marr’s movements are widespread, with multiple areas of high use. At face value, the patterns in their movements don’t make much sense considering their likely sex, since the female is more tied to the nest during the first part of the nesting period, while the male is more random in his movements as he works to provision the incubating female, and later, the young brood. Based on morphometrics at the time of capture, Ragnar was tentatively sexed as a male while Sefi was tentatively sexed as a female. The difference between these two nesting patterns could be explained by sex. Ragnar has a very centralized, almost circular cluster pattern suggesting that the bird is tied tightly to a nest location. Contrasted against Ragnar, who also seems to have bred, the difference is striking. Sefi seems to have nested in a site across the bay from Valdez, however there is some spread to the points. The red clusters indicate areas of high use. The image above illustrates the home range pattern in a heat map for each individual for the month of June. These individuals are an important contribution to understanding whether or not birds like Sefi and Ja’Marr that occur well within the distribution of harlani represent the phenotypic diversity of that population, or represent plumage traits that come from calurus to the south, and occur because of contact and interbreeding. Although Ja’Marr is not breeding (as indicated by it’s more irregular and widespread movement patterns), it is interesting to compare the plumage similarities between Ja’Marr and Sefi, and the proximity to their summer locations, to Ragnar’s breeding location. The other striking difference is in the tail pattern, where Ragnar has rather thick and regular tail banding while the other two birds have irregular barring that is mostly restricted to the base of the tail, and includes harlani-like spotting. Ja’Marr and Sefi each have harlani like streaking in the breast, while Ragnar is a very deep dark and solid brown throughout the body. They are all dark morphs, with fully red tails. These individuals are similar in many aspects of their plumage. Comparing these two individuals against Ragnar, who ended up at a breeding site in central British Columbia, creates an opportunity to look at the similarities and differences in their plumage, age, and purported sex to provide some interesting context to the movement patterns we are seeing. Eventually, both birds ended up in south central Alaska. Sefi and Ja’Marr moved along the coast of British Columbia and southeast Alaska, hopping from island to island and passing over cities such as Juneau. Two of these individuals took an exciting spring migratory route that we haven’t seen until now. ![]() There are several ways pet owners can protect their furry friends from birds of prey such as maintaining a tidy yard getting rid of bird feeders and having a pest-control system that reduces the number of rodents, which are one of the main prey animals of hawks, according to K9 of Mine, a dog care advice website.We are fortunate that three of our birds have settled in summer locations that are in range of a cellular tower, so we are receiving regular updates on their movements. "It's a possibility that the hawk could've grabbed the dog and could've done some damage, possibly even killed the dog, but this is a very rare occurrence for hawks," said Brooke Yahney, a spokesperson with the Wildlife Center of Texas. The Wildlife Center of Texas told KHOU that even though hawk attacks remain relatively rare, owners are not advised to leave their pets outside unattended. Hawks and other birds of prey have been known to target small dogs on occasion. Malnourished Dog Rescued From Mexico's Highest Peak by Mountain Climbers.Video Shows 53 Dogs Headed for Meat Slaughterhouse Being Rescued.7 Differences Between Dog People and Cat People.Video Shows Family Dog Wagging Tail as Mountain Lion Paws Glass Patio Door Separating Them.
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