{"id":24256,"date":"2024-12-25T22:48:44","date_gmt":"2024-12-26T05:48:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/red-tailed-hawk-is-returned-to-mesa-verde-national-park\/"},"modified":"2026-03-30T22:51:03","modified_gmt":"2026-03-31T04:51:03","slug":"red-tailed-hawk-is-returned-to-mesa-verde-national-park","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/red-tailed-hawk-is-returned-to-mesa-verde-national-park\/","title":{"rendered":"Red-tailed hawk is returned to Mesa Verde National Park"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"The
The red-tailed hawk that was injured in Mesa Verde National Park in November, moments before its release on Dec. 12. (Photo courtesy John Livingston)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>\n

On the afternoon of Dec. 12, a red-tailed hawk was released in Mesa Verde National Park, about a month after it was injured there.<\/p>\n

In early November, it had \u201creportedly flew into a car,\u201d so the park\u2019s staff \u201cassisted the motorist in capturing the hawk,\u201d according to an email from John Livingston, Colorado Parks and Wildlife\u2019s public information officer in its Southwest region.<\/p>\n

From there, the hawk was taken to the Durango Animal Hospital, where Dr. Emily Haag examined it and took X-rays.<\/p>\n

\"The
The red-tailed hawk that was injured in Mesa Verde National Park after it flew into a car. (Photo courtesy John Livingston)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

Haag found no broken bones, but she did find \u201csome soft tissue damage,\u201d like bruising, and \u201cpossible head trauma,\u201d Livingston said.<\/p>\n

CPW Wildlife Rehabilitator Michael Sirochman got involved and worked in conjunction with the animal hospital, as Sirochman works at a center that \u201crehabs more than a dozen raptors every year,\u201d Livingston said.<\/p>\n

On Nov. 8, the hawk was in Sirochman\u2019s care. Before long, it was \u201cflying beautifully,\u201d Livingston said.<\/p>\n

Since the hawk recovered quickly, they were able to return it to the wild quickly.<\/p>\n

On the morning of Dec. 12, Livingston picked it up from Pagosa Springs and coordinated with a Mesa Verde park biologist to find a good release location.<\/p>\n

\u201cOnce the crate was open \u2026 it flew perfectly a few hundred yards to a nice perch where it took in its surroundings,\u201d Livingston said.<\/p>\n\n

\u201cWe have full confidence this hawk is completely healed and healthy and will continue to contribute to the ecosystem here in Southwest Colorado and within the national park,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Red-tailed hawks might be the most common kind of hawk on this continent, according to the Cornell Lab of Ornithology<\/a>.<\/p>\n

They also make the kind of \u201cshrill cry\u201d you\u2019d expect of a hawk, so their sound is almost always used in movies, whether the bird on-screen is a red-tailed hawk or not.<\/p>\n

If you come across an injured animal in the wild, do not try to rescue the animal yourself! Contact state or federal wildlife officials instead.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

November, the raptor was injured in the park<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":24257,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[28,29],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-24256","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-headlines","tag-newsletter"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24256","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=24256"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24256\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":78459,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24256\/revisions\/78459"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/24257"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=24256"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=24256"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=24256"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=24256"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}