Why are country birds moving to the city?

I’ve noticed over the past couple of decades that birds I used to see almost exclusively outside the city and suburbs have moved in. They’ve taken up residence even where the most “natural” thing on the landscape is a streetside Bradford Pear with carbon monoxide poisoning.

These new neighbors include red-tailed hawks, peregrine falcons, Cooper’s hawks, sharp-shinned hawks, barred owls, great horned owls . . . hmmm. There seems to be a pattern here. Many of them, apparently, are predators. Maybe there’s something about food involved?

Red-tailed hawks have nested on the roof of a three-story building in a shopping area near our home. The family could be noisy, but nobody tried to get the birds evicted. Photo by Colin Andrews.

So I did a little research. That is I asked Google, and Google didn’t come up with much in a couple of minutes, so I quit looking and made myself a cup of coffee.

Anyway, there doesn’t seem to be much research on the subject. I know the Peregrine falcons have moved in mostly because of conservation efforts. They’re easily fooled into thinking tall buildings are high cliffs and so pretty good places to build a nest. They’ve also been provided with subsidized cold-water fly-ups in the form of nesting boxes. And then there’s the abundance of fat pigeons (rock doves or rock pigeons to those in the know) to feed on.

But the Red-tailed, Cooper’s and Sharp-shinned hawks and the owls are another matter. They seem to have made the decision all on their own.

My hypothesis is that it’s finally about food. I mean, look at it. We have more foxes in my neighborhood every year, along with more feral and wandering house cats. Foxes like cats, and not in a way cats appreciate. Possums regularly mosey up on our front porch, ring the doorbell and ask us if we’ve accepted Jesus as our personal savior. And don’t get me started on the squirrels. They’re forming street gangs and threatening the dog. So there’s a regular smorgasbord around here for hungry animals and birds at the top of the food chain.

We’ve seen all the aforementioned hawks in town this year, although the owls have avoided us. We’ve also spotted bald eagles sailing over I-70 where it passes through Kansas City, Kansas. When I was a kid, that kind of sighting would have been a sign of the coming apocalypse.

Actually, it’s great seeing all these birds in town. We don’t have to drive as far to find them, so we save on gas. The only thing that worries me is that the turkey vultures are getting thicker than flies over the city, too. Maybe we should give more thought to the apocalypse notion.

Official Big Year species count as of February 13: 83.