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Raptors

Learn more about raptors at the Golden Gate Raptors Observatory.

 

Illustration of bald eagle.
Our Work

GGRO 2022 Season Summary: Hawkwatch

The 2022 fall migration was a season of almost-recovery from COVID-19, but someone forgot to tip off the hawks, as we had one of our lowest overall counts in many years.
Raptors

RSHA Trends over Time

This graph shows the Red-shouldered Hawk count trend over time. Questions we could ask with these data include: What is the trendline for changes in annual numbers of Redshouldered Hawk sightings at the Golden Gate over the last 30 years? Are Redshoulders increasing or decreasing? The dark swath behind the...
A graph of daily hawkwatch counts over 30 years, with four peaks, two taller peaks representing total and juvenile hawks, and two lower peaks showing adult and unspecified hawks.
Raptors

RSHA Migration Profile

This graph shows an autumn migration profile, like a cross section of the combined daily Redshoulder hawkwatch counts from 1992 to 2021. Questions we could ask with these data include: What is the best day of the season to see a Red-shouldered Hawk? What is a peak number of Redshoulders...
Graph of migration counts 1992-2021
Raptors

30 Years of Red-shouldered Hawk Migration

A Red-shouldered Hawk with brown and reddish-brown feathers looking over its shoulder, against a blue sky.
Conservation

30 Years of Red-shouldered Hawk Migration

Explore trends over 30 years of Red-shouldered Hawk migration observed at Hawk Hill.
A hawkwatcher scans the eastern skies for raptors

Is bird-watching the antidote to the pandemic? S.F. high school pushes passion projects

San Francisco Chronicle

“Raptors are a gateway drug into bird-watching,” Allen Fish, Director of the Parks Conservancy's Golden Gate Raptor Observatory, said, explaining his 40-year obsession with birds of prey. “And bird-watching is a gateway drug into giving a damn about the environment.”

Adult Red-tailed Hawk
Article

Raptors and Smoke

After a 2018 season of smoke and haze, GGRO Director Allen Fish explored impacts of air pollution on birds in his 2019 article for Pacific Raptor 40. As first responders battle wildfires across the state each year, we again wonder what effect these extreme climate phenomenon will have on raptor health and movement.
Color-banded raptor.
Article

Color bands on hawks: What they mean and why they matter

Red-tailed Hawks! This season was full of them. The 2018 field season ended with 342 Redtails banded-almost 100 Redtails above our 10-year average.
Portion of Hawk Hill closed for 2020 Hawkwatch Program
Article

Hawk Hill Partial Closure Fall 2020

This year, significant changes to the Hawkwatch program protocols have been implemented to allow a limited number of GGRO Hawkwatchers to safely collect migration data from Hawk Hill.
Black and yellow peregrine falcon with white fluffy chicks in rocky nest
Article

Fledge spotting: Peregrine falcon pair nesting on Alcatraz island

For the first time in recorded history, peregrine falcons have nested on Alcatraz Island! After months of observating the pair, park biologists have spotted two fledglings.