SALT LAKE CITY — It is not every day a neighborhood is asked to help find a missing hawk.
But in Sugar House, that is the assignment.
HawkWatch International is asking people to keep an eye out for Stax, a Harris’s hawk used in the organization’s education programs. Stax has been missing since Monday after escaping near 900 East and Simpson Avenue.
The search has stretched across a roughly three-mile grid, with volunteers checking trees, rooftops, telephone poles and other places a hawk might perch.
Stax is not defenseless. He is still a bird of prey, with sharp talons and the instincts of a raptor. But HawkWatch says he is also an education bird, used to people and human care. He has an old foot injury and still has leather jesses on his legs — straps used with trained birds — which could make life outside harder.
That is why people in the area are being asked to look up — and listen. The Harris’s Hawk has a unique call; it’s a rough, raspy sound that people may hear before they ever see him.
Some neighbors have already heard pieces of Stax's description.
“They just said there might be like a tether on it and has like a yellow beak. I don’t know,” Sugar House neighbor Alaina Larimer said.
Thomas Antczak, a former HawkWatch volunteer, said many birds used in education programs rely on people for care.
“Most of the birds that they have at HawkWatch do need the human intervention to be able to stay alive,” Antczak said.
Richard Nowak, who works with injured birds at Avian Sanctuary and Protection, said a hawk that is used to people may not act like a fully wild bird.
“If he sees somebody holding a hamburger at a backyard barbecue, he might say, ‘Oh, that looks like the kind of food I was trained on,’” Nowak said.
Nowak said that does not mean people should try to handle him.
If someone gets too close or tries to pick him up, his feet and talons could still cause injury. The safest thing to do is report the sighting and keep watching from a distance.
“Keep your eyes open, and if you see him, make that phone call and try to keep an eye on him,” Nowak said.
HawkWatch says anyone who sees Stax should take a photo if possible, note the exact location and call or text 801-648-9286. Sightings can also be emailed to education@hawkwatch.org.
