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Posted by Bill Pranty on 22:37:00 01/09/08
In Reply to: Great Black-hawk, life expectancy posted by Elsa
I'm not aware that anybody who is at least relatively familiar with what Robertson and Woolfenden (1992) called "the black-hawk problem [that] has become a hardy perennial of Florida field ornithology" has ever suggested that only one black-hawk has been involved for more than 30 years.
Indeed, the only previous photograph of a _Buteogallus_ was of a **juvenile** from May 1975 taken two years **after** the first **two** adults (a pair?) were seen in the area from Greynolds Park to Virginia Key.
Additionally, there have been reports (not verified to species -- nor even necessarily to genus!) of black-hawks from Big Pine Key and the Marquesa Keys, and these individuals if correctly identified were certainly different from the Miami-Dade birds.
Finally, in 1995, P. William Smith, who was for many years (prior to moving to Washington) among the most careful and astute observers in the region (especially with exotic birds) opined that all _Buteogallus_ reports from southern Florida represented Great Black-Hawks that originally escaped from captivity and had subsequently experienced "very limited" breeding.
Recent reports -- one now documented photographically -- confirm that the species continues to survive in (solely?) Miami-Dade County. But whether the birds continue to breed -- if indeed there is more than one present -- remains to be discovered.
Best regards,
Bill Pranty
Bayonet Point, Florida
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