(440) 286-9516I have a red-shouldered hawk nest on my property and I would like to put up a squirrel nesting box. How far should I put the squirrel box from the hawk's nest?
I have a red-shouldered hawk nest on my property and I would like to put up a squirrel nesting box. How far should I put the squirrel box from the hawk's nest?
Red-shouldered hawk [Photo by Bruce Bennett]
Red-shouldered Hawks will eat a huge variety of prey, from songbirds to frogs to rodents. Though they typically prey on smaller mammals (think of voles and chipmunks), they will also prey on squirrels.
Nesting pairs of these hawks have large “home ranges” where they hunt; one study from the University of Georgia found that nesting pairs had a typical hunting range of half a square mile. It’s unlikely that any squirrel-nesting box that you place will be outside of their hunting range.
However, we don’t know of anyone who’s attempted your experiment. Will squirrels choose to nest in a site that’s so close to a Red-shouldered Hawk’s nest, or will they keep their distance from the hawks? Can the squirrels and hawks coexist in the same patch of woods, or will you get to witness some hawk-vs-squirrel predation? We won’t know unless you put up your nest box and see what happens.
Keep us posted!
-Naturalist Chris Mentrek
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