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Wildlife Protection

Keeping It Simple: Easy Ways to Help Wildlife Along Roads

Ferruginous hawk nest is relocated and rebuilt

Rust-colored ferruginous hawks - the largest hawks in North America - often reuse their nests from year to year. So when Montana Department of Transportation biologists relocated a ferruginous hawk nest because of its close proximity to a US 89 highway construction project, they reused the sagebrush-stick nest material to make two new nests on artificial nesting platforms. They mounted the platforms on poles, placing them about three quarters of a mile from each other and from the original nest location. Every year since 1997, the hawks have been using one of the new nesting sites, and they've successfully fledged 17 young. Relocating and "recycling" the original nest has also prevented costly construction delays during the nesting season.
 
--Apr 25, 2003

Photo by Kirk Eakin

Ferruginous hawk nestlings