Harris's Hawk

[StarryNite]

I took this photo probably about a year ago when we were out just driving around. Harris's Hawks are social hawks that can often be seen in pairs or threes. This day when they flew away we counted five. A group of hawks is sometimes referred to as a cast, cauldron, or kettle.

[StarryNite]

1. Special Names for Flocks of Birds

Before looking this up for my post I only knew two: Crows and Ravens is a "murder". And geese is a "gaggle". I always heard a group of quail was a "covey".


Special Names for Flocks of Birds
When a flock consists of just one type of bird or closely related species of birds, specialized terms are often used to describe the group. The most colorful and creative flock names include:


Birds of Prey (hawks, falcons): cast, cauldron, kettle
Bobolinks: chain
Budgerigars: chatter
Buzzards: wake
Cardinals: college, conclave, radiance, Vatican
Catbirds: mewing
Chickadees: banditry
Chickens: peep
Cormorants: flight, gulp, sunning, swim
Coots: cover
Cowbirds: corral, herd
Cranes: herd, dance
Creepers: spiral
Crossbills: crookedness, warp
Crows: murder, congress, horde, muster, cauldron
Doves: bevy, cote, flight, dule
Ducks: raft, team, paddling, badling
Eagles: convocation, congregation, aerie
Emus: mob
Finches: charm, trembling
Flamingos: flamboyance, stand
Frigatebirds: fleet, flotilla
Game Birds (quail, grouse, ptarmigan): covey, pack, bevy
Geese: skein, wedge, gaggle, plump
Godwits: omniscience, prayer, pantheon
Goldfinches: charm, treasury, vein, rush, trembling
Grosbeaks: gross
Gulls: colony, squabble, flotilla, scavenging, gullery
Herons: siege, sedge, scattering
Hoatzins: herd
Hummingbirds: charm, glittering, shimmer, tune, bouquet, hover
Jays: band, party, scold, cast
Kingbirds: coronation, court, tyranny
Kingfishers: concentration, relm, clique, rattle
Knots: cluster
Lapwings: deceit
Larks: bevy, exaltation, ascension, happiness
Loons: asylum, cry, water dance
Magpies: tiding
Mallards: sord, flush
Nightingales: watch
Owls: parliament, wisdom, study, bazaar, glaring
Painted Buntings: mural, palette
Parrots: pandemonium, company, prattle
Partridges: covey
Peafowl: party, ostentation
Pelicans: squadron, pod, scoop
Penguins: colony, huddle, creche, waddle
Phalaropes: swirl, twirl, whirl, whirligig
Pheasants: nye, bevy, bouquet, covey
Plovers: congregation
Quail: battery, drift, flush, rout, shake
Ravens: murder, congress, horde, unkindness
Roadrunners: race, marathon
Rooks: clamour, parliament, building
Sapsuckers: slurp
Skimmers: scoop
Snipe: walk, wisp
Sparrows: host, quarrel, knot, flutter, crew
Starlings: chattering, affliction, murmuration, scourge, constellation
Storks: mustering
Swallows: flight, gulp
Swans: wedge, ballet, lamentation, whiteness, regatta
Teals: spring
Terns: cotillion
Turkeys: rafter, gobble, gang, posse
Turtledoves: pitying
Vultures: committee, venue, volt, wake
Warblers: confusion, wrench, fall
Woodcocks: fall
Woodpeckers: descent, drumming
Wrens: herd, chime

[link:https://www.thespruce.com/flock-names-of-groups-of-birds-386827|

[StClone]

2. Nice! Harris's Hawk is a striking raptor.

Eagles, and Hawks like Swainson's and Broad-winged Hawks, can come together in flocks at roosts or feeding sites. A group, or flock of eagles, has a name but I can't recall it.

But mainly Hawks come together in migration and in so doing, under the right weather, they will form a swirling concentration riding a favorable thermal looking like a "kettle" (or cauldron) being stirred. Never heard of a cast of hawks though. "Kettle" is a common term familiar and used by modern birders.

As to why Harris's Hawks form cooperative hunting groups is an interesting study: We hypothesize that one benefit of cooperative hunting is to increase success in habitats that make the prey difficult to catch (e.g., a high density of hiding places). We think that this benefit could be as important as capturing and overwhelming large prey, a benefit proposed by Bednarz (1988). We propose the “challenging habitats hypothesis” (CHH) https://bioone.org/journals/the-auk/volume-130/issue-3/auk.2013.120063/Reexamining-Cooperative-Hunting-in-Harriss-Hawk-Parabuteo-unicinctus--Large/10.1525/auk.2013.120063.full

The "Bednarz" cited is an old friend.

[StarryNite]

3. Thank you for that great resource.

Tons of good information in it.

We live in the north Phoenix suburbs. Many years ago I found a dead Harris's Hawk on the side of a dirt road. It was banded. This was before the days of everybody having computers and internet access. I don't remember how I did it but I found where to send the band. A few weeks later I got a card in the mail saying the bird was released down in Tucson, not long before it made it all the way up here. I suspect it had been sitting in the road or swooped down and was hit by a car. I have no way of knowing for certain, just speculation on my part.

I love the Harris's Hawks. I wish I had had the skills and a great camera to have captured this one as it flew from a tree across the road right in my direction at dusk when I was in my front yard.

[George McGovern]

4. Great photograph StarryNite - glad you decided to post it. And what a wealth of information! Thanks!

[StarryNite]

5. Thank you!

I'm glad you like it.