Washington Square Park’s Baby Hawks Take Flight

By Paul Bisceglio

And the eyases are off! Washington Square Park’s popular baby red-tailed hawk duo Boo and Scout fledged just after 8 p.m.on Monday to the delight of the area’s robust hawk-loving community. The 48- and 49-days-old siblings made their first flights within 10 minutes of each other from their nest outside the twelfth floor of New York University’s Bobst Library to an eight-floor ledge outside the university’s Silver Center.

Urban hawks blogger D. Bruce Yolton, who was at the scene, noted that the tandem flight was as uncanny as it was spectacular. “Red-tailed hawks don’t normally fledge together nor do they usually fledge to the same place,” he wrote. “The fledge happened at dusk, another rarity.”

A screenshot of the baby hawks

Since hatching, Boo and Scout have been the online stars of the New York Times’ popular Hawk Cam 2012, which provides constant streaming video of their nest and posts stories and pictures of their growth. When the hawks were born, the website even allowed viewers to vote on the pair’s How to Kill a Mockingbird­-referencing names.

Enjoy the siblings while you can. The Hawk Cam’s F.A.Q. page explains that the newly-mobile duo will stick around the park for the next few weeks to develop flight muscles and to receive meals from their parents. Once they are competent fliers and hunters, though, they will leave their parents’ territory.