Red-tailed Hawks have become a common breeding bird in New York City over the past 30 years. Photo: François Portmann
Picture this: you’re walking through a New York City park on a sunny afternoon when a large shadow passes overhead. You look up to catch a glimpse of a heavy-bodied bird gliding above the trees, its burnt-orange tail catching the light. The Blue Jays start shrieking. You’ve just spotted a Red-tailed Hawk.
Pale Male and Lola on their Fifth-Avenue Nest. Photo: Rik Davis
A protestor in front of 927 Fifth Avenue, December 2004. Photo: NYC Bird Alliance
NYC Parks Commissioner Adrian Benepe, actress Mary Tyler Moore, and NYC Bird Alliance Executive Director E. J. McAdams are honored for their efforts on behalf of Pale Male and Lola at the NYC Bird Alliance Fall Roost, in 2005. Photo: Geraldine de Haugoubart
Pale Male and Lola on their Fifth-Avenue Nest. Photo: Rik Davis
A protestor in front of 927 Fifth Avenue, December 2004. Photo: NYC Bird Alliance
NYC Parks Commissioner Adrian Benepe, actress Mary Tyler Moore, and NYC Bird Alliance Executive Director E. J. McAdams are honored for their efforts on behalf of Pale Male and Lola at the NYC Bird Alliance Fall Roost, in 2005. Photo: Geraldine de Haugoubart
Pale Male: NYC's First "Celebrity Bird"
For decades, the most famous nest in New York City, on Fifth Avenue on the Upper East Side, was that of the extraordinary Pale Male, who arrived in the City in 1991. At the time a rare sighting in New York City, Pale Male's surprising appearance in Central Park, and his eventually successful nesting attempts with several partners within view of onlookers, quickly earned him a devoted fan club.
Little did his early fans know that they would play an important role in defending him and his new-found home, and that Pale Male would become the talk of the town.
Pale Male was first observed in Central Park during the summer of 1991, with a striped brown, rather than red, tail indicating he was a first-year bird. Local naturalist and author Marie Winn came up with his name in honor of his very light coloring.
Over the ensuing decade, Pale Male coupled with several mates, including "First Love," "Chocolate," and "Blue." Their fates, as those of several later mates, exemplified the dangers of urban life for these raptors: First Love was injured, rehabilitated, and then died from eating a poisoned pigeon; Chocolate died from injuries sustained in a collision with a car; Blue disappeared and was presumed dead in 2001.
Those tragic losses helped fuel successful advocacy, including the banning of the bird poison Avitrol in New York City in 2000. (Read more about our continuing advocacy concerning rodenticide use).
In the early 2000s, Pale Male's next mate, "Lola", began nesting with him atop a decorative window pediment at 927 Fifth Avenue. This nest site, which was visible from Central Park, became the source of great renown for Pale Male and Lola: in December 2004, workers at the co-op removed the birds' nest.
Neighboring hawkwatcher Jane Koryn immediately sounded the alarm, and a loose coalition sooned formed to bring attention to the birds' plight: devoted hawkwatchers such as Marie Winn and Lincoln Karim, prominent advocates like Mary Tyler Moore, and then-NYC Parks Commissioner Adrian Benepe were joined by NYC Bird Alliance (then NYC Audubon) – led by Executive Director E. J. McAdams, Board President Marcia T. Fowle, and Project Safe Flight founder Rebekah Creshkoff – in a public advocacy campaign to protect the bird.
Ultimately, the many concerned New Yorkers who wrote letters, made calls, and stood in the cold on Fifth Avenue on behalf of Pale Male and Lola prevailed. The building installed a new nesting cradle designed by architect Dan Ionescu, and Pale Male returned to raise chicks (known as "eyasses") at the same address for years to come.
Longtime NYC Bird Alliance supporter Sandy Fiebelkorn, who saved some of the sticks from Pale Male's original nest and placed them in the new cradle when it was installed, continues to monitor the birds of 927 Fifth Avenue and communicate with the supportive building management on their behalf. We thank Sandy and the building for their continued care for this historic nest.
Pale Male not only pre-dates the internet, which is amazing in itself, but was one of the first Red-tailed Hawks ever to have been observed nesting on a building. This celebrated raptor’s story has been told in both print (Marie Winn’s excellent Red-tails in Love is the place to start) and film (The Legend of Pale Maleby Frederic Lilien).
Pale Male is presumed to have died in 2023, though some observers believe he may have passed earlier and that the bird seen in later years was another pale-plumaged Red-tail. As he was never banded, no one can say for certain.
In the decades since Pale Male first nested in Central Park, Red-tailed Hawks have established themselves across all five boroughs. Dozens of pairs now nest each spring in parks, on building ledges, in sports field lights, and atop monuments.
Some draw crowds of their own: hawks have nested at New York University, in Tompkins Square Park, and atop the Unisphere in Flushing Meadows Corona Park, among many other locations.
Searching “Red-tailed Hawk New York City” online is a good way to find current blogs, nest cams, and community updates like D Bruce Yolton's Urban Hawks blog. Or look through our Birding in NYC pages, profiling over 100 parks in the City, to find out where Red-tails are nesting and frequently spotted.
Pale Male’s last known mate is Octavia – his eighth mate – a name chosen for that reason. They first paired around 2013, and the two last successfully fledged chicks in 2018. Eggs were laid in 2020, but did not hatch. After Pale Male’s presumed death, the 927 Fifth Avenue nest appeared dormant through 2025.
In early 2026, the building’s management proactively reached out to NYC Bird Alliance about planned facade work, noting that the nest had been quiet for several years. After consulting with our ornithologists and several experienced hawk watchers, NYC Bird Alliance gave a conditional go-ahead and asked the building to pause immediately if nesting activity resumed.
In late March 2026, Octavia was observed rebuilding the nest and engaging in courtship behavior with a new mate. NYC Bird Alliance asked the building to halt its facade work for the remainder of the nesting season, and they did so without hesitation. Throughout April, birders confirmed both birds at the nest in patterns consistent with incubation. The first egg hatched on May 7, and a chick was visible from the ground near the Model Boat Pond starting on May 15.
The 927 Fifth Avenue nest is one of four active Red-tailed Hawk nests in Central Park this spring, all confirmed to have eyasses as of mid-May 2026.
A Red-tailed Hawk swoops in to find a perch in Manhattan's Union Square. Photo: François Portmann
Help Our Urban Red-Tailed Hawks
Despite their adaptability, Red-tailed Hawks in New York City face ongoing threats. Rodenticides are among the most serious: hawks that eat poisoned rats or pigeons absorb the toxins themselves, sometimes at fatal doses. Building collisions, car strikes, and lead exposure from urban construction are additional risks.
While raptors are not a primary focus of NYC Bird Alliance’s conservation programs, the work we do to make New York City safer for all birds helps reduce these threats for Red-tails as well. We support efforts to reduce rodenticide use in City parks and encourage building owners, property managers, and residents to choose pest management approaches that do not put wildlife at risk.
Anyone can help spread the word on best practices for rodenticide use, however. See our information on Rodentides and Birds of Prey, and learn how to help protect raptors from rodenticide poisoning.
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