New York Falls for Latest Love Nest

New York’s best known love birds, the famous Fifth Avenue Hawks, have returned to the city after winter and come back to their plush address overlooking Central Park. The pair of hawks, known as Pale Male and Lola, are one of the city’s top tourist attractions. Their arrival back in town - and news that they had laid a clutch of eggs - has sparked a tabloid frenzy of the kind usually associated with Britney Spears and her on-off pregnancy rumors.

‘Nest & Nookie’ blared the New York Post alongside a picture of the nesting birds. Not to be outdone the rival Daily News announced the birds’ return with the cringe-worthy: ‘Great egg-spectations’.

The pair of predatory birds have been a feature of New York life for more than a decade. They have inspired a documentary, a book and countless reams of newsprint. Bird-watchers flock to Central Park to watch them hunt amid the concrete skyscrapers of Manhattan, bringing a touch of genuine wildlife right into the heart of one of the most urban landscapes in the world.

The red-tailed hawks hit the headlines last year when the residents of the plush apartment building where they usually live pulled down their nest amid complaints that it was dirty and dangerous. That triggered a firestorm of bad publicity that eventually saw protests mounted outside the building. The residents were eventually forced to back down.

But it seems Pale Male and his mate have not entirely forgiven the inhabitants of 927 Fifth Avenue for trying to evict them. Though they have rebuilt their nest on the same building the pair have been spending a lot of time at a new location just across town.