Pale Male

I really enjoyed this 54 minute documentary about the first red hawk to ever adapt himself to an urban environment. Hatched in 1990 and named for the unusually light coloring of his head, Pale Male nests on one of the most exclusive and beautiful buildings in New York City. Each spring birders set up telescopes at Central Park’s Model Boat Pond to observe his nest and chicks. The documentary features First Love and her chicks.

Pale Male has attracted and out-lived numerous mates, including First Love (died after eating a poisoned pigeon), Blue (disappeared about the time of the September 11 terrorist attack in 2001), Lola (disappeared in December 2010 and presumed dead), Lima (died in 2012, presumably from a poisoned rat), and Zena (disappeared and is presumed dead).

May 7, 2013 Current mate, Octavia, on nest with 3 brand new babies

At least three children’s illustrated books about Pale Male have been published, including:

• The Tale of Pale Male: a True Story, by Jeanette Winter (Harcourt, 2007)
• City Hawk: the Story of Pale Male, by Meghan McCarthy (Simon & Schuster, 2007)
• Pale Male: Citizen Hawk of New York City, by Janet Schulman (Knopf, 2008)

Pale Male is the mascot of P.S. 6, an elementary school at the Upper East Side, Manhattan.