Celebrity Hawks Expecting

NEW YORK —  There are one to three eggs in the nest with the posh Manhattan address, and newborn chicks are expected within the next two weeks, according to avid bird-watchers who monitor the nest daily and report the activity on the Internet.

The nest is at 927 5th Ave. -- 12th floor, above the cornice -- and the residents are Pale Male and Lola, the red-tailed hawks whose highly publicized eviction in December sent feathers flying among urban naturalists.

“We’ve transitioned from a Christmas story to a spring awakening,” said E.J. McAdams, executive director of the New York City Audubon Society.

The birds drew international attention in December when residents of the building dismantled their original nest, objecting to bird droppings and rat carcasses that, they said, splattered on the sidewalk below.

But the tenants backed off a few weeks later after bird lovers picketed and spread birdseed on the sidewalk so that the building would be overrun by pigeons.

“This episode is as much a people story as a bird story,” said Bill Fowler, an Upper East Side resident who spread the bird seed.

The saga pitted some of most recognizable names from New York high society against one another. Richard Cohen, who is married to CNN newscaster Paula Zahn, headed the building’s co-op board, which ordered the nest’s removal. Fellow tenant actress Mary Tyler Moore sided with the bird lovers.

The co-op board eventually agreed to erect an architect-designed steel cradle on the cornice that prevented debris from falling from the nest and allowed the birds to remake their home with twigs collected across the street in Central Park.

“These birds have sort of become New York City’s bald eagle,” Fowler said.

Ever since he alighted upon the cornice 12 years ago, Pale Male has captivated bird aficionados. The 14-year-old is one of the few hawks in New York’s five boroughs. Another lives on a fire escape in the Bronx, and a third on the air-conditioning unit of a Queens prison, McAdams said.

Pale Male has sired 23 offspring with a succession of four mates, and has spawned a mini-industry of photographs, books and documentaries.

Since the controversy erupted, business has picked up 200% to 300% for Rik Davis, a photographer who sells postcards and photos of the birds in Central Park.

“As soon as the chicks hatch, I know sales will go through the roof,” he said.

Spring is the high season for the bird-watchers. Newborn chicks hatch, and thousands of birds migrate north for nesting and breeding, said Marie Winn, a New York writer who penned a book about Pale Male.

On Saturday, bird-watchers who had gathered in Central Park trained high-powered telescopes on the nest, as scores of passersby stopped for a glimpse.

“The questions range from ‘Whose bathroom are you looking into?’ to serious questions” about the birds, said Lincoln Karim, a Pale Male devotee and activist who had wheeled a telescope the size of a cannon into the park. He also had a TV monitor on a mechanized cart.

Those who stopped said they were happy that things worked out for the birds.

“It is all about our habitat, so everyone gets to live where they want to live,” said Trip Sheehan, an insurance broker from Wellesley, Mass.