Hawks Aloft, Inc. – Conservation, Avian Research & Education

Working to preserve New Mexico’s wildlife and unique landscapes for many generations to come.

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Avian
Research

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Rescue

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Hawks Aloft, Inc. is a 501(c)3 non-profit organization incorporated in 1994 and based in Albuquerque, New Mexico.

We work to conserve indigenous wild birds and their habitats through avian research, conservation education, raptor rescue, and cooperation with other organizations.

We believe that this work helps to preserve New Mexico’s unique landscapes and wildlife populations for many generations to come.

News from HAI

Brazil | Natural Wonders of the Pantanal

05 Apr 2024

October 15, 2025 – October 29, 2025 Join Hawks Aloft for the expedition of a lifetime! The Pantanal in central-western Brazil is the world’s largest freshwater wetland and one of the most biodiverse habitats on the South American continent. The star residents are jaguars that roam, hunt, and lounge on the forested riverbanks. Hyacinth Macaw,…

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Making the 2024-25 Hawks Aloft Raffle Quilt

07 Mar 2024

Cynthia Figueroa-McInteer, a retired architect, and Gail Garber began designing our newest quilt in the summer of 2023, using AutoCad software – the same software that we’ve used for most of the HAI raffle quilts. We wanted a design that bespoke of New Mexico, and began with a prominent Zia symbol, along with the classic thunderbirds…

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Volunteer Training Class – Feb 3, 2024

04 Jan 2024

When: February 3, 2024Where: Bachechi Open Space Education Building, 9521 Rio Grande Blvd Time: 9 AM – 12 PMCost: $25 — Includes membership and volunteer manual. Click here to sign up. Light refreshments will be provided. Hawks Aloft (HAI) is unique in that the four pillars of our foundation are quite diverse: Attend our volunteer…

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Presenting Our Panama 2023
Gallery of Images

Our trip was planned around the mass migration of North American raptors through the isthmus of Panama, as well as a quest to find a Harpy Eagle. It was an incredible journey that far exceeded our hopes. The three primary photographers, Tom Mayer, Larry Rimer, and Gail Garber returned with a lovely assortment of images that we share with you in this gallery.

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Saying adios to one very special Ferruginous Hawk,

Saying adios to one very special Ferruginous Hawk, "Ferrug". He brightened my life and charmed others for 28 years until a tumor ended his earthly world. Injured as a youngster, he was not able to experience free flight. They say that Ferruginous Hawks make for difficult educational ambassadors, but he proved otherwise, from starring in a BBC film about prairie dogs filmed at the Vermejo Park Ranch and happily roosting throughout a workshop about reducing electrocution risks for birds, to sharing my hotel room and hiding behind his perch when conditions did not suit him. A one-in-a-million bird!

New Mexico actually hosts more birds during the wi

New Mexico actually hosts more birds during the winter months than in the spring and summer, as many end their southerly migration here. The Harlan's Red-tailed Hawk breeds in Alaska and northwestern Canada, and winters on the southern Great Plains including New Mexico. This very dark form of the Red-tailed Hawk has a marbled white and brown-black breast and a whitish tail. They are among the last to arrive here and a real treat if you can find one.

Finally, as NM raptor migration nears it, we see f

Finally, as NM raptor migration nears it, we see fewer but larger birds, like the ubiquitous Red-tailed Hawk, occasionally carrying a cranky companion. Red-tails are the ultimate generalist, not too picky about habitat, eating just about anything (and everything), and utilizing utility poles for hunting perches! Thank you Larry Rimer for this photo.

The name "peregrine" means wanderer, and the Pereg

The name "peregrine" means wanderer, and the Peregrine Falcon has one of the longest migrations of any North American bird. Tundra-nesting falcons winter in South America, and may move 15,500 miles in a year. As in many other raptor species, the young of the year, less experienced at hunting, often depart before their parents. Juveniles are brownish overall with scalloping evident on the feathers of the back and scapulars on the wing. There is a bluish cast to feet, bill, and tissue around the eye. Thank you Doug Brown Photography for this photo.

Yesterday's post touched on a seldom seen and litt

Yesterday's post touched on a seldom seen and little known species, the Prairie Falcon. Concern about their populations led to the creation of the Prairie Falcon Working Group, with representatives from all U.S. states and Canadian provinces where the species occurs. Its range encompasses all of the western U.S. into southern Canada and south into Mexico and the Baja Peninsula. The group will meet on Saturday morning, during the Raptor Research Foundation International Conference in Albuquerque to discuss collaborative monitoring methods that can be implemented across a broad region, including citizen science opportunities. Thank you Kristin C Brown Photography for this photo!

As raptor migration nears it's end of the season h

As raptor migration nears it's end of the season here in New Mexico, we see more species that breed in the far north, like this Prairie Merlin. My first impression upon spying one of these beauties is, "That's a funny looking kestrel!" Somewhat larger and definitely bulkier, this speedy falcon, migrates from as far north as the Arctic Circle to as the northern countries of South America. Our Hawks Aloft team will be at Canopy Tower near Panama City for peak raptor migration! We are so excited to make this return trip at just the best time to see these wanderers!

How many of us remember taking accidental—or may

How many of us remember taking accidental—or maybe intentional—double exposures with our 20th-century film cameras? Thanks to digital technology, multiple-exposure photography can provide a solo-flying Sandhill Crane with a virtual travel companion! Thank you, Gail Garber, for this photo.

If you’ve been following our posts, you already

If you’ve been following our posts, you already know that we at Hawks Aloft are ever grateful to our photographers and their artistic eyes! Some take it to the next level by deploying advanced camera techniques. To capture this image of a Sandhill Crane, our photographer has used the “pan-blur” technique—photographing a moving subject at a slow shutter-speed while following her subject at that same speed, creating what you might call a painterly, even Impressionistic, effect. Thank you, Kristin Brown, for this photo.

Ring of Fire! Or Full Circle! We thank @Doug Bro

Ring of Fire! Or Full Circle! We thank @Doug Brown Photography for this photo, emblematic of the amazing people and photographers who donate their time and images to Hawks Aloft. We could not do this without you on our team!

Classic elegance. Small wonder that many bird spec

Classic elegance. Small wonder that many bird species take their names—either common or taxonomic/scientific—from classical mythology! A few examples: the Calliope Hummingbird, named after Homer’s muse; the owls (including the Burrowing Owl) of genus Athene, honoring the Greek goddess of wisdom; and, pictured here, the Sandhill Crane—aka Antigone canadensis, referring to the Trojan Antigone (not the more familiar daughter of Oedipus).
It’s not always easy, or perhaps even possible, to discern the connection between a bird’s name and its natural history. Case in point: the above-mentioned Calliope Hummingbird. In the case of the Sandhill Crane, however, it’s been suggested—though possibly not confirmed—that it was a simple matter of human error. It seems that Carl Linnaeus, the great Swedish botanist and taxonomist, may have assigned the name in a moment of confusion between Antigone, whom the gods turn in to a stork, with Gerana, a beautiful queen turned into a crane by a jealous Hera. Thank you, Dennis Chamberlain, for the photo.

Destination: Bosque del Apache National Wildlife R

Destination: Bosque del Apache National Wildlife Refuge, near Socorro, NM and host of the annual Festival of the Cranes, where these Sandhill Cranes are in their element! Wintering Sandhills roost in shallow waters at night, and forage during the day in wetlands and irrigated croplands as well as in grasslands and pastures. In addition to energy-rich waste grains as mentioned in yesterday’s post, they’ll supplement their diet with amino acids and calcium by consuming arthropods, nestling birds, snakes, and mice.
This year’s festival is scheduled for December 6-9. Peak experiences for attendees are the mass fly-outs at sunrise and fly-ins at sunset. It’s well worth getting up early (really early!) to catch a tour bus to the wetlands where the cranes will have spent the night in the safety of the water. There’s safety in numbers as well, and the sight and sounds of thousands of cranes taking to the air are unforgettable. Thank you, Dennis Chamberlain, for the photo.

Here’s a stunning image of Sandhill Cranes flyin

Here’s a stunning image of Sandhill Cranes flying over the Sandia Mountains enroute to their wintering grounds (with stopovers along the way). Here in Albuquerque you might see Sandhills foraging on the ground near the Open Space Visitor Center in the North Valley, where the adjacent farmlands are managed as wildlife habitat. Migrating Sandhills depend on waste grains of corn, barley, and wheat as energy sources for the flight to their ultimate destination. That could be the Ladd S. Gordon Waterfowl Complex near Bernardo, south of Belen, a great place to view these overwintering migrants almost literally up close and personal. Do drive carefully through the complex as the cranes cross the refuge’s roads—mostly on the wing, fortunately—to get from one field to the other! Thank you, Dennis Chamberlain, for the photo.

With the Rocky Mountain population of Sandhill Cra

With the Rocky Mountain population of Sandhill Cranes well on the way to their wintering grounds at Bosque del Apache and points south, here’s a quick rewind to nesting season back up in Wyoming! While some Sandhills will nest on dry land, most—like this female—prefer small, isolated wetlands with vegetation (aka nesting materials!) growing in standing water. The female typically lays two eggs; just as typically, only one of the nestlings is likely to survive to fledge. Our photographer made a return trip to the nest site several weeks after taking this photo and reported seeing a chick peeking out from under its mom. With any luck, this story may have come to a happy ending! Thank you, Tony Thomas, for the photo.

Check out the neck on this bird! Therein lies the

Check out the neck on this bird! Therein lies the secret of the Sandhill Crane’s distinctive calls. Below the surface of that neck is an extra-long trachea that coils into the bird’s sternum, lowering the pitch of its vocalizations while adding overtones that enrich the sound. While avian vocalizations are generally regarded as analogous to the sounds of wind instruments (hence the “trumpeting” characterization), one research team has hypothesized that the Sandhill Crane’s vocal apparatus is more like a violin: the tracheal coils in its sternum act as a bridge that transmits vibrations to the sternum, which then transmits those vibrations to the bird’s air sacs. It would be interesting to know if the bony sternum is functionally similar to the wooden bridge of the violin! Thank you, Kristin Brown, for the photo.

It’s October in Albuquerque, bringing the sights

It’s October in Albuquerque, bringing the sights and sounds of the season to our bright blue skies! The “whoosh” of a hot-air balloon is guaranteed, naturally, to draw all eyes upward. More to our purpose here is the call of the Sandhill Cranes, now heading southward to their wintering grounds. Sandhills make “birding by ear” quite an easy proposition! Their distinctive calls—variously described as trumpeting, bugling, rattling, and croaking—are unmistakable, and you can easily corroborate your ID by looking upward! Thank you, Gail Garber, for the photo.

About the size of a juice can, the Flammulated Owl

About the size of a juice can, the Flammulated Owl is about the size of a snack. But, it has a super-power! It's unusually large trachea (windpipe) permits it to make a remarkably low-pitched hoot, making it sound like a much larger owl—an advantage for a tiny species that could easily fall prey to larger predators.

In general, owls hold cultural significance to man

In general, owls hold cultural significance to many Indigenous American populations. They can be harbingers of death or summoners of spirits. However they are perceived, owls hold great mystery. These majestic birds have and will continue to be awed over and admired for many generations to come.

Thank you, Larry Rimer, for this photo of a Mexican Spotted Owl.

Owls are split into two genetic groups, Barn Owls,

Owls are split into two genetic groups, Barn Owls, and every other owl species. Unlike some other owls, Barn Owls do not make the stereotypical “hooting” noise. They instead make a loud screech. Barn Owls represent screaming or crying women in many cultures’ mythology. This phenomenon could be because of their haunting call and the fact that they are midnight hunters.

Thank you, Doug Brown, for the photo.

Keep your hummingbird feeders clean and filled. T

Keep your hummingbird feeders clean and filled. These little guys are still migrating through, possibly from as far away as Alaska! The extra sustenance your feeder provides might make a huge difference in their energy resources! Must LOVE hummingbirds! Thank you @Keith Bauer Photography for this photo!

While many owls hunt, and are more active, at dusk

While many owls hunt, and are more active, at dusk and dawn, others prefer the middle of the night. These owls, like the Barn Owl pictured here, do not use sight as their primary means of finding prey but use their hearing instead. These owls can have a facial disk of specialized feathers that act as ear lobes and funnel sound into their ears, which are located close to the base of their eyes. They may also have asymmetrical ears, i.e., located at slightly different points on each side of the head. This helps with triangulation of sound and can enable an owl to pinpoint prey in the dark.

Thank you @alanmurphyphotography for this photo.

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