Meet Brevard Zoo’s ‘Gezabelle,’ the Red-Tailed Hawk, a Rehabilitated Native Bird

By  //  September 18, 2016

came to Brevard Zoo as a chick in 2002

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Meet Brevard Zoo’s “Gezabelle,” the red-tailed hawk. She came to the Brevard Zoo as a chick in 2002 after being treated for a fractured humerus. (Brevard Zoo image)

BREVARD COUNTY • MELBOURNE, FLORIDA – Meet Brevard Zoo’s “Gezabelle,” the red-tailed hawk.

She came to the Brevard Zoo as a chick in 2002 after being treated for a fractured humerus.

“Gezabelle is one of many rehabilitated, non-releasable native birds that live at the Zoo—we’re very proud to care for these animals and share them with our visitors,” said the zoo on Facebook.

The red-tailed hawk is a bird of prey, one of three species colloquially known in the United States as the “chickenhawk,” though it rarely preys on standard sized chickens. It breeds throughout most of North America, from western Alaska and northern Canada to as far south as Panama and the West Indies.

Because they are so common and easily trained as capable hunters, the majority of hawks captured for falconry in the United States are red-tails.

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ABOVE VIDEO: Space Coast Daily met the Hawk and her handler at the Brevard Zoo during the ‘Clue At The Zoo’ fundraiser for Crosswinds Youth Services on September 17.

Falconers are permitted to take only passage hawks (which have left the nest, are on their own, but are less than a year old) so as to not affect the breeding population.

Adults, which may be breeding or rearing chicks, may not be taken for falconry purposes and it is illegal to do so. Passage red-tailed hawks are also preferred by falconers because these younger birds have not yet developed the adult behaviors which would make them more difficult to train.

– Wikipedia

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