Red-tailed hawks are opportunist hunters, usually living at the edge of a woodland. But they are well adapted to living on the fringes of and sometimes within the city.  Most of their diet consists of small mammals: Rabbits, mice, meadow voles and squirrels are all favorites.

But sometimes when opportunity presents they will hunt and capture slower moving birds. Such is the case of the pair of red-tails that has taken to air patrols over the parking lot and adjacent grassy areas of St John Macomb-Oakland Hospital in the highly urbanized SE corner of Oakland County. The pair perches - and waits - on the antenna on the roof and the security observation globe on the 7th floor roof.  Pigeons, that used to perch on the lower level roof are strangely absent.