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Raptor Mortality in Urban Landscapes

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Urban Raptors

Abstract

During the normal course of their lives in exurban landscapes, raptors are killed by weather, accidents, disease, predators, and each other. For example, when late winter storms bring low temperatures, snow, and ice, spring migrants or their nestlings can rapidly deplete limited energetic reserves. Summer storms and monsoons can bring high winds, torrential rain, and hail, adding risks of falling rock and ice (which can dislodge when melting) crushing nestlings, breaking branches, and collapsing nests. Other raptors die of dehydration and hyperthermia in arid exurban environments, particularly nestlings in south-facing nests. Accidents in flight occur when young raptors are learning to fly and when adult raptors are focused on prey or competitors and thus fail to perceive an upcoming obstacle. Disease can result from exposure to a wide variety of vectors, including infected prey, mosquitoes, and social transmission. Predators most often consume nestlings in nests, but larger raptors also prey on smaller species, and intraspecific and interspecific competition routinely lead to injury or death. Across these factors, starvation, which is typically an indirect effect, is often the proximate cause of death in exurban environments.

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Acknowledgments

We thank Judy Scherpelz and Michael Tincher of the Rocky Mountain Raptor Program and Michelle Willette of the Raptor Center at the University of Minnesota for insights into the mortality of urban raptors. Photos courtesy of Michael C. Tincher (figure 14.1A; figure 14.2A, C, D), Dianna Flynt (figure 14.1B), and James F. Dwyer (all others).

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  1. James F. Dwyer
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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Natural Resources Management, Texas Tech University, 15th and Boston, 79409-2120, Lubbock, TX, USA

    Clint W. Boal

  2. Susan Springs Dr 7280, 45069-3696, West Chester, OH, USA

    Cheryl R. Dykstra

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© 2018 Cheryl R. Dykstra

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Dwyer, J.F., Hindmarch, S., Kratz, G.E. (2018). Raptor Mortality in Urban Landscapes. In: Boal, C.W., Dykstra, C.R. (eds) Urban Raptors. Island Press, Washington, DC. https://doi.org/10.5822/978-1-61091-841-1_14

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