Earlier yesterday I spent part of my lunch hour visiting the southeastern part of Central Park to check on the Plaza Male and his nest sites. The Plaza Hotel nest, his strongest contender for a spring-time brood, is as scrappy as ever and not a well-developed nest from what I can tell. Even with Octavia’s help working on the nest a couple of weeks ago, it is still bare-bones.
Octavia may have given up on this potential mate and his nest. She was seen helping Pale Male with his nest (and mating with him) as recently as a couple of days ago. Of course, she has been seen with both males (mating and at their nest sites) routinely for the last couple of months but the clock is ticking on any chance for the Plaza Male to win her over. But of course, if I see her actively engaging with this male I’ll report it straight away. As an aside, Octavia’s identity as both the Plaza Male’s and Pale Male’s potential mate has been confirmed by several experienced birders so I write “Octavia” with confidence when referring to this female. Her identification is based not only on the two black dots on the underside of her tail feathers but also on patterning on the underside of her wings.
The Plaza Male was alone the half hour I saw him as he perched on his favorite spot of The Pierre Hotel (across the street from the park).
Continue to the full post… “Plaza Male on his own – Pictures from March 11th, 2013”
