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All Six Juvenile Harris’s Hawks Left Their Natal Ranges After Repeated Exploratory Movements

Wild Harris's hawk perched in vegetation at Laguna Atascosa National Wildlife Refuge, Texas
Research · Behaviour

A study of wild Harris’s hawks (Parabuteo unicinctus) in south Texas, USA has documented repeated exploratory movements before juveniles left their natal home ranges. Published on 6 February 2026 in the Journal of Raptor Research, the study used Apple AirTags to follow the movements of 11 hawks living in urban and suburban landscapes.

Researchers Brooke A. Poplin, James C. Bednarz and Andrew J. Gregory focused on a poorly documented stage in the species’ life: what happens when young Harris’s hawks begin moving beyond the family territory before dispersal. The species is well known for cooperative social groups, and juveniles can remain with their natal group for an extended period before establishing themselves elsewhere.

Six juveniles made repeated exploratory movements outside their natal home ranges. Each juvenile made an average of seven such movements during the study, and all six eventually dispersed from their natal ranges. The repeated departures and returns show that dispersal was preceded by a period of exploratory movement rather than occurring as a single departure.

The researchers also recorded exploratory movements by two hawks in adult plumage and documented both moving to new home ranges. These adult-plumaged birds made longer exploratory movements than the juveniles.

More impervious surface was linked to longer exploratory movements

Landscape structure was associated with how far the hawks travelled. Individuals whose home ranges contained a higher proportion of impervious surfaces such as roads, roofs and paved areas made longer exploratory movements. Tracking also ended prematurely more often for these birds, either because tags failed or ran out of battery, or because the hawks moved into areas without nearby Apple devices to relay their locations.

Sources and image credit

  1. Poplin, B. A., Bednarz, J. C., & Gregory, A. J. (2026). Using Apple AirTags to document dispersal and exploratory movements of Harris's hawks. Journal of Raptor Research, 60(1), jrr2522.

Image: Gregory "Slobirdr" Smith / Wikimedia Commons / Flickr — wild Harris's hawk (Parabuteo unicinctus) at Laguna Atascosa National Wildlife Refuge, south Texas, photographed 4 November 2013. Representative regional photograph, not one of the tagged birds in the study. · CC BY-SA 2.0 — https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0/ · Source

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