Harris Hawk and Trainer

The Harris’s Hawk or Harris Hawk, formerly known as the Bay-winged Hawk or Dusky Hawk, is a medium-large bird of prey which breeds from the southwestern USA south to Chile and central Argentina. It is a hawk of the arid Southwest, the Harris’s Hawk hunts cooperatively in pairs or trios. The Harris Hawk is famous for its remarkable behavior of hunting cooperatively in “packs”, consisting of family groups (most raptors are solitary hunters).

A wonderful place to experience these birds in flight is at the Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum near Tucson, Arizona. My sister and brother-in-law took me to this facility and we enjoyed it immensely. The Desert Museum is a large facility and is more than just a museum. It is a zoo, an arboretum, a desert garden, and much more. It contains buildings where education programs are conducted for young and old a like. When your feet are tired from walking you can find benches to rest, or better yet enjoy a double-stack Byers ice cream cone under a shade tree. If you visit there make sure you plan on the whole day and have fun!