I’ve been asked repeatedly to give my opinion about whether the hawk that died this past week was the original Pale Male or a replacement. In many ways it doesn’t matter. The benefits of having a hawk nest so accessible to New Yorkers is the same, regardless of how many hawks were using it.

But folks keep asking me to comment, so I’ll do my best to give my opinion. We can’t know for sure if the hawk that died was the original Pale Male. He wasn’t banded and didn’t have any truly unique field marks. So, we must look at the information at hand, and then each of us must come to their own conclusion.

Corey Finger wrote a blog post in February of 2015, “Pale Male is Dead: Long Live Pale Male!” In it he questioned if the then current Pale Male was the original Pale Male. He made some good arguments, but also had some flawed logic, especially when he quoted a description of Pale Male from Marie Winn’s book, which I don’t think should have been used as a definitive source.

I wrote about Corey’s post after it came out, here, “Corey Finger’s Blog Post”.

After I wrote that post, I took time to talk to “old timers”, who had watched Pale Male for a longer period than I had. I started watching Pale Male in 2005, years after he made his home in Central Park. The “old timers” provided old photographs, from as early as 1995 when Pale Male had his first offspring at 927 Fifth Avenue, that match photographs from the recent years.

They also introduced an argument that Corey Finger hadn’t considered, which was that the consistent behavior of the male at 927 Fifth Avenue over the last 28 years, should be included in the debate. They pointed out that when any of Pale Male’s mates had died, the replacements had very different habits, such as new perches and roosting locations.

The individuals who had watched Pale Male longer that I had, make a strong case that the individual that died last week was the original Pale Male. They can show that not only was his appearance consistent from year to year but can also show the male’s behavior such as his favorite perches and roost sites were consistent.

The nest failures of 2019 and 2020, the failure to nest in 2021-2023, and the necropsy which detailed an older hawk dying of renal failure, also help support the case that hawk that died last week was the original Pale Male.

There is room for doubt, however. I can’t find good documentation to confirm that the hawk that arrived in 1991 was the same hawk that began nesting in 1995. Pale Male’s markings aren’t that unique for an east coast hawk. Over the years, we’ve seen many hawks come through the park that are even lighter in color. So, a swap in the early days would have been possible.

In Marie Winn’s book, Pale Male arrived in November of 1991, but didn’t have any offspring until 1995. The early photographs I’ve seen are from the years after he started nesting. It’s possible that that Pale Male might not be the hawk that arrived in 1991, but a hawk that arrived later. This would make the hawk that just died last week a bit younger, but the same one everyone watched nesting on Fifth Avenue.

Others have brought up arguments, which should be evaluated before reaching a conclusion:

• Hawks find replacement partners quickly. We’ve seen other New York City hawks find a replacement mate in less than a day. So, it would be possible for a mate to be quickly replaced with a similar looking hawk.
• If it was only one male all this time, he would have been 32 or 33 when he died if he arrived in 1991. This would be very old for a Red-tailed Hawk and supports the idea that there were two hawks.
• Pale Male’s markings weren’t unique enough to use as a way of identifying him.
• With the book and movies, those watching Pale Male were too biased to consider that there might have been two pale males.
• That his mates died so frequently during his life, it is unlikely that he could have survived for over thirty years.

These arguments certainly raise doubts, but don’t provide definitive proof that there were two hawks. As Corey Finger said in his post, there was no dead body.

Since there is no definitive answer to the question, each person will need to draw their own conclusion.

I missed Pale Male’s early days in the park. There are only a handful of birders left who have followed him since he arrived in the park. I know most of them and they all are convinced Pale Male was still the original bird that arrived years ago based on his looks and behavior.

So, I’ll go with their opinion that it there was just one Pale Male. However, I do respect anyone who feels there are too many open questions, to justify the position that there was only one male.

Regardless of which side you take on this issue, the hawks who nested at 927 Fifth Avenue brought joy to the Upper East Side, and had a huge impact on the community.

(Often when discussing this question, folks ask if the hawk that died last week could have been a descendent of Pale Male. That’s almost impossible for two reasons. Firstly, natal dispersal (how far offspring wonder from their parents) is incredibly far for Red-tailed Hawks, up to 1,000 miles. Secondly, the female of the pair is unlikely to die at the same time as the male, and won’t be mating with her own offspring.)