I had forgotten that when I saw this book on another blog years ago, it was identified as a children’s picture book. Forgot and didn’t notice that when I came across it in the library catalog and put in a request. Pulled it off the hold shelf, had a moment of surprise and decided to read it anyway. It has lovely (if a bit loose in style) watercolor illustration and the text isn’t dumbed-down. About the red-tailed hawk of unusually pale feathers that took up residence on a ritzy apartment building in NYC and hunted squirrels, rats, pigeons etc in Central Park nearby. Most of the details about the hawk’s life in a big city were familiar to me, from having read Red-Tails in Love earlier. I did find one piece of info that felt new- this hawk living in the city was remarkable because most red-tailed hawks are too shy to live in such a busy, populated location. I thought he was just notable for his coloration and the decision to build a nest on a building instead of in a tree. Since Pale Male’s first successful nesting (initial clutch failed), other red-tailed hawk pairs have begun living in the city- one on another building not too far from Pale Male’s preferred roost, and others in the park trees. People suspect that one of the second hawk pair that nested on the other building, is Pale Male’s offspring, and so too might be the others that live in the surrouding area. I was curious how the hawks fare with competition from peregrine falcons? do they have conflicts? but the book didn’t mention anything about this.
I enjoyed this book because I like artwork and reading about animals, even though I’m well into adulthood! I’m sure any kids who are interested in animals and how they adapt to live among people, or just birds of prey in general, would find this a great read too.
Borrowed from the public library.