Humans have had a unique relationship with raptors, nature’s aerial killing machines, for more than four thousand years, first through the ancient sport of falconry, and, more recently, as scientists and engineers have turned to these mighty birds — from golden eagles, red-tailed hawks, and turkey vultures, to great gray owls and the peregrine falcon — as the inspiration for the latest in aircraft design. Using the tricks and tactics of raptors as their model, engineers have devised fighter jets with unprecedented maneuverability and stealth.

In Raptor Force, you’ll learn the secrets of these astonishing aerialists, and how they’ve mastered, more than any other type of bird, the art of soaring. And with the help of engineer and falconer Rob MacIntyre’s ingenious miniature television station — a camera, transmitter, and battery small enough to be harnessed onto the backs of raptors — you’ll see for yourself what it’s like to fly with these deadly aces.

Online content for Raptor Force was originally posted February 2007.

To order a copy of Raptor Force, please visit the NATURE Shop.

Follow the adventures of Pale Male, a daring red-tailed hawk who manages to thrive in the urban world of New York City.

A fearsome predator has been stalking Manhattan for years. But instead of calling the police, New Yorkers have put out the welcome mat and wished him the best of luck. Meet Pale Male — a red-tailed hawk who chose life in the Big Apple and founded a hawk dynasty on the ledge of a swanky high-rise overlooking Central Park.

New York’s bridges and high-rises have long been known to occasionally harbor peregrine falcons on their upper ledges and steel towers. But the presence of a red-tailed hawk launching into majestic flight from a Fifth Avenue apartment building to search for prey in the skies over Central Park created a local sensation when first noted in the early 1990s. Pale Male, as he soon was known, quickly became a cause célèbre, first among local residents, then New Yorkers in general, attracting the interest of naturalists, photographers, and journalists.

Long before sunrise, throngs of spectators gathered in the park with binoculars and telescopes to watch Pale Male on his ledge and wait for him to start his day. It was assumed to be a fleeting opportunity to observe the rare phenomenon of a red-tailed hawk experimenting with life in the big city.

But improbably, the winged hero of this story had found a permanent home amidst the bustle of human civilization. In the months and years that followed, he became the main character in an unfolding drama — mating, raising chicks on a precarious perch and defending them against marauding crows, teaching his offspring survival skills in a semi-natural environment, losing his mate and finding another, and, almost miraculously, guiding a multi-generation family that could withstand intimate proximity with people.

UPDATE: Pale Male’s fame and family have continued to grow since the making of this film. For current photos and information, please visit http://www.palemale.com and http://www.mariewinn.com

To order a copy of Pale Male, please visit the NATURE Shop.

Online content for Pale Male was originally posted May 2004.

It is a beloved green oasis in one of the world’s largest concrete jungles. But New York City’s Central Park — where the red-tailed hawk that stars in NATURE’s Pale Male makes his home — isn’t just any city park: It is considered the crown jewel of one of America’s most influential landscape architects, Frederick Law Olmstead.

Olmstead was born in Hartford, Connecticut, in 1822 to an affluent family. At 18, he moved to New York to work, first as a “scientific farmer” and later as everything from a seaman to a journalist. In 1857, political connections helped Olmstead land a job as superintendent of Central Park, a huge swath of land that the city had recently purchased for nearly $5 million. Some elite New Yorkers had championed the purchase as a way to show that the city was ready to compete with the likes of Paris and London. Others argued it would help keep workers “out of the saloon” on their day off.

Olmstead teamed with Calvert Vaux, a landscape architect, to develop the “Greensward Plan” for developing the 843-acre park, which won out over more than 30 other competitors. It called for converting the rocky, hilly, and swampy parcel into a kind of pastoral Eden, complete with lakes, trails, and lush plantings. Ultimately it took 20 years and $10 million to complete the job, which included hauling in more than 10 million cartloads of dirt and fill, planting more than 4 million plants and trees, and building 36 bridges and 4 lakes.

Central Park took 20 years to complete.

After fighting seemingly endless political battles over park management, Olmstead left in 1877 and went on to design other major public spaces such as the campus of Stanford University and the grounds of the U.S. Capitol. He died in 1902. Vaux stayed with the park until his death in 1895.

Since its completion, Central Park has undergone several cycles of neglect, decline, renewal, and revision. Olmstead, for instance, didn’t include fields for sports in his plan; those were added in the 1930s. Most recently, in the 1980s, park advocates mounted a major fundraising and rehabilitation effort, fixing lawns, walls, and trails. Today, the park — once used mostly by the wealthy — draws millions of visitors from all backgrounds.

It has also become an urban wildlife magnet. Birdwatchers delight in spotting migrating warblers in spring, and identifying the ducks that visit its lakes. Raccoons and even foxes prowl its grounds.

But no wild inhabitant has captured the attention of city dwellers like Pale Male, the young red-tailed hawk that showed up in the early 1990s, and started nesting on a building across from the park. Hawk watchers showed up daily to watch Pale Male, and celebrate the arrival and first flight of chicks. They also observe the drama of the sharp-beaked predator prowling his Central Park hunting grounds for squirrels and pigeons. It’s a sight that would likely make Olmstead, who aimed to bring a bit of country into the city, very proud.

It’s a worrisome moment: A beautiful young red-tailed hawk takes a tumble while learning how to fly and appears injured. But as viewers of NATURE’s Pale Male learn, the young bird of prey gets a clean bill of health from a “raptor rehabilitator” — a specialist in treating injured hawks, eagles, and owls.

Over the last few decades, raptor rehabilitation has become a growing field in the United States and abroad. These wildlife caregivers — some are professional veterinarians, while others are trained volunteers — take in birds that have been hit by cars, injured in accidents or, sadly, shot by irresponsible hunters or poisoned by chemicals. It can be grueling work, requiring long hours treating injuries and hand-feeding birds in preparation for releasing them back into the wild. But some die, and others are too injured to return to nature.

To get a glimpse of a rehabilitator’s life, NATURE recently spoke with Julie Anne Collier, a raptor rehabilitator living in Springfield, Massachusetts. In 1994, she and Jim Parks founded Wingmasters, a raptor rehabilitation group that uses birds unable to return to the wild in educational programs for school children and other audiences.

How did you get involved in this line of work?

Well, I’ve been taking care of birds since 1978. It just grew in a natural kind of way out of my interest in biology and art. I had been drawing birds of prey from pictures, but wasn’t very happy with the results. Then I met a local falconer, who had live raptors, and ended up becoming his apprentice. And in this state, once you get your falconry license you can also get your rehabilitation license. Soon, I was giving programs and working with injured birds. In 1990, I quit [my job in publishing] and began doing programs full time.

How many birds have you treated?

Dozens and dozens. Right now, I’ve got 15 [raptors that I wasn't able to release] at my house, and 10 others awaiting release. Most of them are red-tailed hawks. They are often hit by cars. Last winter, we had a lot of snow and had a huge number of red-tails that were found starving. Luckily, that’s an easy situation to fix.

But I have a female red-tail that will never be released. It’s a very strange story. Jim was told that somebody was keeping a hawk in a wire cage — that’s against the law; they need roomy, adequate housing. So it was confiscated and it was a mess — its feathers were all broken from throwing itself against the wire. I took the bird in through the winter, until it could grow new feathers. But to my horror, they grew back incorrectly, maybe due to stress, her injuries, or maybe an improper diet. She can’t support her weight in the air. She lives now in a special cage where she can climb around.

What other birds do you have?

The largest is a golden eagle named Lakota. She’s now 27. She was shot in South Dakota, and has been with me so long that she makes a nest on the floor of her flight cage — and expects me to sit in it! And I do. I look like a complete idiot — but I don’t care.

How do you support your work?

People often ask me if the government gives us money. I have a one-word answer: Hah! The programs help us raise funds, pay for our permits, the food. Don’t look in my freezer unless you like frozen rodents! It’s not cheap.

What would you tell someone who wants to do this kind of work?

First, make sure this is something you really want to do. It takes over your life the way kids do. You should do some volunteer work at a nature center to start. Get your hands dirty — clean a cage or prepare the food. These are not pets! Do not do this because the birds are cute or cool. It’s rewarding, but you need to learn the disadvantages, too. I can’t go on vacation, for instance. If you are really serious, then it’s time to become an apprentice to someone like me.

Sounds like a lot to learn …

There are a lot of mysteries to rehab work. Just when you think you know what you are doing, you find out you don’t. You always make mistakes. I’m always learning.

But when you successfully return a bird to the wild it must be great.

There is an incredible feeling of release and relief. When you raise baby screech owls — as I did two summers ago — they may not bond to you, but you bond to them. There were three of them; one was found in a road. I spent weeks feeding them microwaved mice every few hours with a hand puppet [so they don't become "imprinted" on humans]. My gosh, they were just little puff balls! When we released them I was in tears. I went back to the spot later, and heard some screech owls calling. I like to think they were mine, but I couldn’t be sure.

Last year I was called to rescue this young great horned owl in a pasture. I found its nest, but the parents never came back. Luckily, we found another nest elsewhere in the state, so we put him there. By the next day, those parents were feeding it as their own. It’s always so much better when you can return them to the wild quickly … they are much better off.

Sometimes, I’ll invite people to join me for the releases. We’ll release the bird in the name of someone who has died. It seems to help to release a bird as a memorial.

Have you been busy recently?

Well, right after we finish this interview I’m going to go out and get what sounds like a young great horned owl. Some people found it on the ground on the edge of the forest. I’m hoping I can find his nest and don’t have to bring him back here.

Well, thanks for the time and good luck.

If you ever want a microwaved rat, just call me!

Intrepid avian creatures attain new heights in NATURE’s Extraordinary Birds.

The gift of flight would seem reason enough for humanity’s fascination with birds. But there’s even more to it than that. Birds are remarkable for a wide range of exceptional physical abilities, for their indications of intelligence, and — for some species — their surprising level of rapport with humans.

In the small Indian village of Kundha Kulam, for example, birds’ arrival are a sign to the townspeople that rain will follow and that their crops would soon thrive. While falconry — the art of training hawks, falcons and other birds of prey to hunt — exemplifies the partnership men and birds can develop.

Humans have also relied on the more prosaic pigeon. Although city dwellers may dismiss them as flying rats, no bird can top the pigeon for courage and service to humankind. Since pigeons have the ability to find their way “home,” many were used in dangerous, top-secret missions in World War I and II, delivering important messages to Allied troops behind enemy lines.

Discover more amazing birds — from hummingbirds and peregrine falcons to parrots and barn owls — on NATURE’s Extraordinary Birds.

To order a copy of Extraordinary Birds, please visit the NATURE Shop.

Online content for Extraordinary Birds was orginally posted November 2000.