About Us
Xander, Red-tailed hawk surrogate
One pillar of WNY Raptor's mission is to expand on the current research on post-release success in wildlife after it has been rehabilitated and released. We have specific projects dedicated to post-release success on red-tailed hawks. The research allows us to document the behaviors of our released hawks. This project is funded primarily by a grant donated by a private foundation. We are looking on ways to expand our project and happy to collaborate with other groups doing similar projects.
"Maverick"
Maverick (hawk #1) was released back to the wild. Maverick was a juvenile red-tailed hawk rehabilitated at WNY Raptor for 3 months. She was released in September 2021. We have been able to successfully track Maverick's success for almost 2 years! Her case is a definite success!
"Bemus Point"
Bemus Point was released with a number of Ornithology students in September 2023. He has already made his way across the border into Canada!
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Maverick home range
Range of three raptors showing variability
Range of three raptors showing variability
Map shows the home range for Bird 1 (Maverick) alone. The red dot marks the release site, while the blue dots indicate her recorded locations. The blue dotted line represents the minimum convex hull (MCH), encompassing all the transmitter pings.
Range of three raptors showing variability
Range of three raptors showing variability
Range of three raptors showing variability
Map showing the overlapping home ranges for all three birds. The blue line represents the home range for Bird 1 (Maverick, MAV), who traveled 33,958.75 km2 post-release before her signal stopped transponding. The yellow line represents the home range for Bird 2 (Moe, MOE), who only had a home range of 10.06 km2. The green line represents the home range for Bird 3 (McDonnell, MCD), which was 2,181.39 km2.