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THE WILSON JOURNAL OF ORNITHOLOGY • Vol. 124. No. 4. December 2012 
FIG. 2. Composite of 21 Red-tailed Hawk home ranges 
virtually complete coverage of El Yunque National Forest. 
Most visual locations of radio-marked individuals 
were near the top of canopy emergent trees, 
suggesting Red-tailed Hawks in the Luquillo 
Mountains readily use perches with an unob¬ 
structed view of their surroundings. This may 
facilitate territory defense and improved hunting 
success in the dense forest canopy of El Yunque 
and the fragmented woodlands in surrounding 
private lands. However, we repeatedly In = 27) 
observed Red-tailed Hawks in El Yunque hunting 
from a soar and making long sloops at Scaly- 
naped Pigeons (Paiagioenas squamosa) and small 
flocks of the critically endangered Puerto Rican 
Parrot (Amazona vitlata). White el ul. (2005) 
reported predation by Red-tailed Hawks was one 
of the primary mortality factors for parrots in El 
Vunque. We also observed Red-tailed Hawks 
soaring with rats in their talons in El Yunque and 
adjacent lands. Previous studies have documented 
high abundance of columbids and rodents in El 
Yunque (Zwank and Layton 1989, Riveru-Milan 
Red-tailed Hawks in the Luquillo Mountains 
are smaller m body size compared to continental 
conspecifics, reflecting the ‘island rule’ concept 
in the Luquillo Mountains depicting high spatial overlap and 
Puerto Rico. 
ol body size variation in terrestrial vertebrates of 
oceanic islands (Lomolino 2005, Vilella 2007). 
Annua! home range was large compared to main¬ 
land counterparts and other similar-sized raptors 
of the Americas (Reynolds et al. 1994. Walls et al. 
1999). Similarly, breeding season home ranges 
were larger than reported for continental subspe¬ 
cies (Andersen and Rongstad 1989. Smith et ai. 
2003). The largest home range (28,791 ha) was 
exhibited by an unpaired juvenile male, a pattern 
observed in other conspecifics (Bloom et al 
1993). 
Home ranges of Red-tailed Hawks in El 
Yunque were markedly different from previously 
reported estimates of territory sizes (Santana and 
Temple 1988. Boal et al. 2003). Boal et al. (2005) 
reported Red-tailed Hawk breeding territories in 
the eastern portions of El Yunque averaged 
124.3 ha. The authors also argued there was little 
temporal change in the spatial distribution of 
territories and considerable boundary overlap over 
a 26-year period. Our results indicated Red-tailed 
Hawks in the Luquillo Mountains use large areas 
throughout the year. Core areas within Red-tailed 
Hawk home ranges averaged 564.8 ha, almost five 
