Harris’s Hawk – Bird Art Print on Wood

This listing is for a limited edition, fine art print of my original painting of a Harris’s Hawk called, “I Might Disintegrate Into Thin Air, If You Like.”

I’m about to date myself here, but let’s go back to the year 2000. I was walking around a now-defunct music store some of you might remember: The Warehouse. A song came on that was weird, noisy, and incredibly catchy.

The refrain, “It took a lot of work to be the ass I am and I’m really damn sure that anyone can easily, equally f*ck you over…” This was long before smartphones and apps like Shazam. So I walked up to the blank-faced teenager working the counter and asked if they knew who the band was.

Another slightly less sullen fellow appeared and uttered two words, “Modest Mouse.”

One Modest Mouse cd in hand, I happily trotted out to my Saturn (which I referred to as my Tupperware mobile) and drove around blasting that song on repeat.

Anywho, every once in awhile, that song pops back into my head. I feel like it’s aged well, but maybe that’s just the nostalgia talking.

About the Harris’s Hawk

from AllAboutBirds.org:

A handsome hawk of the arid Southwest, Harris’s Hawk is a standout with bold markings of dark brown, chestnut red, and white; long yellow legs; and yellow markings on its face. The most social of North American raptors, these birds cooperate at nests and hunt together as a team. When hunting, a group of hawks surround their prey, flush it for another to catch, or take turns chasing it. This hawk’s social nature and relative ease with humans has made it popular among falconers and in education programs.

• Cooperatively hunting groups of Harris’s Hawks are more successful at capturing prey than individuals hunting alone. Hawks with more than two members in their group have higher survival rates.
• Although most North American Harris’s Hawks nest in spring (March through June), some females lay a second and even a third clutch regardless of whether their first breeding attempt fails or succeeds. Eggs or young have been recorded in every month of the year. Multiple clutches often occur when plentiful food is available.
• Older nestlings and subadults sometimes seem to play by chasing insects or jumping on sticks in an imitation of prey capture.
• Electrocution from unshielded power poles is a danger to Harris’s Hawks—they can be killed or lose limbs—but other members of the group sometimes come to the aid of injured individuals, providing them with food.
• The Harris’s Hawk nests in social units that vary from a single adult pair to as many as seven individuals, including both adults and immatures.
• The oldest known wild Harris’s Hawk was a male, and at least 15 years old when he was retrapped and rereleased during banding operations in New Mexico in 2001. The oldest known captive bird was a female that in 2018 was 33 years old and living at the Freedom Center for Wildlife in New Jersey.