Vilella and Nimitz • RED-TAILED HAWKS IN THE LUQUILLO MOUNTAINS 
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Atlantic Ocean 
FIG. 1. El Yunquc National Forest including reserve proclamation area boundary and forest types (adapted Irom 
Wunderle and Arendt 2011). 
{Roystonea borinquena) and ruble bianco (Tube- 
buia heterophylla ), subtropical wet forest (200— 
600 m asl) dominated by tabonuco ( Dacryodes 
excelsa ), subtropical rain forest (> 450 in asl) 
dominated by palma de sierra ( Prestoea montaiui) 
on steep slopes, subtropical lower montane wet 
forest (601-900 m asl) characterized by palo 
Colorado ( Cyrilla racemiflom), and subtropical 
lower montane rainforest dominated by dwarf 
cloud forest on high peaks and ridges (750- 
1.079 m asl). 
Trapping and Radio-!racking. —We trapped 
hatch-year (HY). after-hatch year (AHY), sec¬ 
ond-year (SY), and after-second year(ASY) Red¬ 
dled Hawks in the Luqttillo Mountains during 
May 2000-May 2002 using bal-chatri traps and 
how nets (Thorstrom 1996. Vekasy et al. 2002). 
Bow nets were bailed with adult Rock Pigeons 
(Columba livia) captured in the center ol nearby 
towns and bal-chatri traps were baited with young 
Helmeted Guineafowl ( Numida meleagris) pur¬ 
chased from local suppliers. We placed bal-chatri 
traps along roads and established three stations for 
bow-net trapping. Trapping stations were on 
private lands west of the El Yunque boundaries, 
in the Mameyes River Valley at 300 m elevation 
in tabonuco forest, and in the Icacos River Valley 
at 650 m elevation in palo Colorado forest. 
We banded all captured hawks after recording 
mass and body measurements with a USGS band 
on the right leg and color-coded band on the left 
lee. We instrumented Red-tailed Hawks with 
radio transmitters using a Teflon backpack 
harness designed to break away Irom a center 
point over the keel (Vekasy et al. 2002, Klavittei 
el al. 2003). Radio transmitters (Holohil R1-2CP: 
Carp. Ontario. Canada) had a life expectancy of 
~ 1.5 years and were programmed with a 24-hr 
activity switch. The 19-g harness and transmitter 
packages averaged ~2.2% of body mass. Indi¬ 
viduals for which the radio transmitter exceeded 
3% of body weight were measured, banded, and 
released (Vekasy et al. 2002). We conducted 
telemetry accuracy tests prior to tracking to 
evaluate the equipment and estimate observer- 
based location error. We estimated location error 
