Fun facts

There are lots of great websites with interesting facts about hawks. This is a fun fact from the San Diego Zoo:

• Hawk eggshells are tinted green on the inside!

We'll be sure to look around on the ground in case any get kicked away from the nest after hatching.


-Lisa Laskaris

More poetry goodness

Ode to Our Ferruginous Friends (Opus II)

Oh, Josué and La Beaka
while filling your nest
with soft feathers and sticks.

Are you dreaming of fuzzy
hungry hawk chicks?


-Melanie Horstman

New Angles

From the back of our building, which faces west, you can almost see into the nest at certain angles. This is a good spot to look at the nest in the afternoon, because the sun is behind us during that time and there is the shade of a nice big palo verde tree to stand under.

This afternoon I sat outside for awhile and saw one of the hawks fussing around in the nest. The hawk's head would go up and down (feeding? arranging?). It's rare I see the both of them together in the last week.


-Lisa Laskaris

And now, a poem

One of our co-workers has named our nesting pair: Josué and La Beaka. And here is her poem:

Ode to Our Ferruginous Friends

Oh Josué and La Beaka
I saw you fly and I was freaka.
You fly so high do you tweaka
your tail feather or your beaka?

-Melanie Horstman

Gray skies

At 1:30 this afternoon the sky was a mix of wind gusts, cool air, dark clouds, and blue sky off in the distance. I looked up to see if the birds were sitting on the tower, but instead saw both of them riding the thermals - circling high together over the communications tower - enjoying the weather.


-Kristi Bradford

Sticks and more sticks

This morning on the way into work (the hawks seem to be consistently active in the early morning) we saw one of the hawks bringing in more nesting material. For several minutes, he (she?) would scan the ground, take off, and bring a huge stick back and fiddle with the nest.


-Lisa Laskaris

Red-tailed Hawk

Our library research and popular consensus (our neighbors – staff at the northwest MVD office - also agree) says our raptors are most likely Red-tailed Hawks. What an amazing thing for Nanini staff, and all the people who use the library, to see these gorgeous (and large) raptors nesting right here!

Here’s what good old Wikipedia has to say about them:

The Red-tailed Hawk (Buteo jamaicensis) is a medium sized bird of prey. It breeds almost throughout North America from western Alaska and northern Canada to as far as south as Panama and the West Indies, and is one of the most common buteos in North America.

A male Red-tailed Hawk may weigh from 1.5 to 2.9 pounds and measure 18 to 22 inches, while a female can weigh between 2 and 4.4 pounds and measure 20 to 26 inches in length. As is the case with many raptors the Red-tailed Hawk displays sexual dimorphism in size, as females are 25% larger than males. The wingspan is from 43 to 57 inches.

Though the markings and hue vary, the basic appearance of the Red-tailed Hawk is consistent. The underbelly is lighter than the back and the dark brown band across the belly, formed by vertical streaks in feather patterning, is present in most color variations. The red tail, which gives the species its name, is uniformly brick-red above and pink below. The bill is short and dark in the hooked shape characteristic of raptors. The cere (from the Latin cera - the fleshy, often waxy structure at the base of the beak), the legs, and the feet of the Red-tailed Hawk are all yellow.

-Kristi Bradford
Branch Manager

What is the Nanini Nest blog?

Nanini is a branch library of the Pima County Public Library in Tucson, Arizona.

One day on our way into work, several of us noticed a pair of raptors perched high up in a communication tower that sits next to our building, and they appeared to be building a nest. This blog will document their behavior and nesting habits.

The nest appears in the picture, atop a platform on the tower. There are 3 separate platforms, and the nest material is visible from below on the right platform.

What kind of raptors are they? What are we calling them? What is their nesting behavior? What are they doing today? Stay tuned and find out…

-Lisa Laskaris
Adult Services Librarian