Red-tailed hawk with rare condition survives despite the odds

KNOXVILLE, Tenn. (WVLT/Gray News) - Almost 2.5 million rad-tailed hawks call North America home, but one of those birds in Tennessee is changing how scientists think, thanks to her survival story.

Angel, the red-tailed hawk, is leucistic, similar to being albino. While an albino animal loses all of its pigmentation, a leucistic animal only loses part; both conditions, scientists say, can lower survival rates.

“Back in the early 2000s, scientists and conservation biologists would say that leucistic and albino animals cannot exist in the wild.” Window to Wildlife’s Connor O’Brien said. “It would be very rare for them to survive.”

O’Brien, a project manager and biologist who installed a camera on Angel’s nest, said her coloring makes it harder to hunt prey.

“Having no camo is just really bad, but she has been able to figure out how to hunt even though it’s a bit easier for prey to see her coming,” O’Brien said.

A big reason O’Brien thinks Angel is thriving as well as she is? Love.

“She’s had to rely more on her mate to help with that, especially during the nesting season,” O’Brien said, talking about Angel’s mate, Tom. “Tom has become an excellent hunter; he catches significantly more than she does.”

Tom’s presence makes Angel’s life easier, O’Brien said, protecting her from intruders in the nest.

“We have a lot of blue jays that harass red-tailed hawks, specifically Angel, when she’s in the nest,” O’Brien said. “Last season, every 10 seconds, blue jays would hit Angel’s head all day, but when Tom gets in the nest, the blue jays just leave them alone.”

O’Brien said that love has made Angel’s survival even rarer, changing how scientists think about leucistic birds.

“Scientists don’t think they can mate with their own species because species can’t identify them,” O’Brien said. “So Angel is shifting that narrative and giving us new data on leucism.”

Angel has produced four offspring in the last few years, marking a love story that defies the odds.

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