Raptors are birds of prey that hunt using their talons. Westchester County is home to eagles, hawks, owls and others throughout the year. Vultures are also seen soaring in our skies, but are not raptors. They don’t hunt at all; they feed exclusively on animals that are already dead.

We are very lucky to be privy to two seasonal raptor-related events–hawks migrating in the fall and bald eagles nesting in the winter.

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Citizen Science

Learn more about HawkWatch and EagleWatch happening locally each fall and winter, as well as several national citizen science projects for would-be birders.

Resources, Events & Ideas

• Take an online course in raptor identification from the Cornell Lab of Ornithology.
• Visit raptors at nature centers. Typically these birds have been injured and nursed back to health by a rehabilitator, but they cannot be returned successfully to the wild.
  • Teatown Lake Reservation
  • Greenburgh Nature Center
• Read H is for Hawk, a memoir about one woman’s grief and her relationship with a goshawk.
• Visit Teatown’s EagleFest in February.