Watch A Rough-legged Hawk Mom Feed Her Chicks in Alaska

July 2, 2025

Cornell Lab cinematographer Gerrit Vyn filmed this Rough-legged Hawk family from a cliffside along the Colville River, Alaska, in 2024, as part of a longer documentary about the Colville River’s importance for raptor populations.

Show Transcript

[Gerrit voiceover]: Rough-legged Hawks primarily spend the winter across southern Canada and the northern United States, and many return here each year to breed.

When raptor chicks are this young, they’re at their most vulnerable. And this female Rough-legged Hawk spends most of her time taking care of the nest and the chicks, while the male hunts the tundra for voles and lemmings.

She tries to chase off the biting flies and other insects. She cleans and refurbishes the nest.

When it’s hot, she shields her chicks from the sun. When it’s cold and raining, she hunkers down to keep them warm, and she preens them and interacts with them.

She also spends a lot of time waiting, looking skyward and calling for her mate to bring her food. These hawks are off to a great start this year. But it’ll take a lot to raise all of these chicks to fledging age.

End of Transcript

Watch as a pair of Rough-legged Hawks work together to raise their chicks in this excerpt from our documentary on the raptors of the Colville River Special Area, Alaska. Cornell Lab cinematographer Gerrit Vyn takes you up onto a steep cliffside for intimate views of the mom tending her growing chicks during long days in the Arctic summer. It’s just one of the special moments Gerrit’s team filmed during three weeks rafting down the Colville River.

Watch the Full Film

Alaska’s Colville River: A Place of Plenty for Arctic Hawks and Falcons [Video]

America’s Arctic: A Globally Important Area for Tundra-Breeding Birds

The Colville River is one of five Special Areas within the National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska. The NPR-A makes up the largest block of wilderness in the United States, and the Special Areas have been designated by the Bureau of Land Management as having exceptional wildlife and subsistence values that deserve maximum protection in the face of development.

About America’s Arctic

America’s Arctic: A Remote Patch of Oil-Rich Tundra That Teems with Migratory Birds

The NPR-A is about the size of Indiana, but its tundra lakes and wetlands are of outsized importance as breeding habitat for birds that travel the world. The region supports more waterbirds than any other place in the Arctic, including more than 660,000 ducks, geese, loons, and grebes; more than 4.5 million shorebirds; and nearly 200,000 gulls, terns, and jaegers—an estimated 10 times more waterbirds than the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. After the summer breeding season, these birds migrate out of the NPR-A to reach all seven continents on Earth.

World map using colored arrows to show migration routes. Text: Northern Wheatear Oenanthe oenanthe; Yellow-billed Loon Gavia adamsii; Bar-tailed Godwit Limosa lapponica; Long-tailed Jaeger Stercorarius longicaudus; Brant Branta bernicla; Arctic Tern Sterna paradisaea; Red Phalarope Phalaropus fulicarius; Tundra Swan Cygnus columbianus; Buff-breasted Sandpiper Calidris subruficollis

Sources: Waterbird abundance figures from Bart et al. 2013. Bird migration routes based on data from Heiko Schmaljohann (wheatear), USGS Alaska Science Center (loon), Global Flyway Network (godwit), Autumn-Lynn Harrison (jaeger, tern), David Ward and Vijay Patil (Brant), Sarah Saalfeld and Bart Kempenaers (phalarope), Rick Lanctot and Lee Tibbitts (sandpiper), Craig Ely and Brandt Meixell (swan). Graphic by Megan Bishop.
Photos: Loon, godwit, and Teshekpuk Lake inset by Gerrit Vyn. From Macaulay Library: wheatear by Wojciech Janecki; jaeger and tern by Autumn-Lynn Harrison; Brant by Volker Hesse; phalarope by August Davidson-Onsgard; sandpiper by Luke Seitz; swan by Jack Belleghem.