# harris hawk nest



## twiggy1992 (May 5, 2010)

how and what do you do for them to build there nests ?????


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## P17nut (Jan 10, 2011)

*Harris Hawk Nests*

Hi, I have been lucky enough to breed Harris Hawks for several years. I can only tell you what I have found that works for me, other people may disagree and do things differently. I have two pairs that have been successfully breeding for the last ten years or so. One pair nests on a ledge in the corner of the aviary. The ledge is about two feet square and has a lip about five inches deep on the two open sides to form a tray. I have fixed a branch of about one and a half inches diameter on top of the lip to give the birds something to land on when they fly to the nest. I fill the tray with about a three inch depth of Irish Moss Peat (from the local garden centre) and I find this works well. The birds make a scrape in the centre and lay their eggs there. For my other pair of birds I once again use a ledge but this time I use a car tyre (13" or 14" works well). I fill the tyre to within a few inches of the top using the Moss Peat, making sure that the inner sides are packed well to avoid eggs rolling in to them. Once again the birds will make a scrape in the middle and lay their eggs. Its up to you if you want to add thin twigs in the aviary, my birds don't use them ( when I added twigs to the nest they promptly picked them up and threw them all on the floor ). My friends Harris Hawks, however, do use twigs and build quite a sizeable nest every year so you could scatter a few around on the floor and see if they use them. I hope this helps you. Cheers, Peter.


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## twiggy1992 (May 5, 2010)

thanks and i was just woundering as there is no up right trees in the avairy so yh if they will do it on a shelf as such that is ok with me :lol2:
thank you peter


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## P17nut (Jan 10, 2011)

*Harris Hawk Nests*

Hi, There are no trees in my aviaries, just a few shrubs, so using a nest ledge built in one of the corners works very well for both pairs of my hawks. Cheers, Peter.


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