The Birds of Prey That Stand Guard Over California’s Vineyards

Photo caption: Rocky, a 6-year-old Harris hawk, is one in a flock of birds of prey that patrols the skies over Bouchaine Winery in California’s Napa Valley. Photo credit: Christie Hemm Klok for Atlas Obscura. Article by Shoshi Parks. Atlas Obscura – June 23, 2022.

Without them, the state’s lucrative wine grape crop could be gobbled up by smaller birds.

Three birds of prey hunker down in the light drizzle falling on Bouchaine Vineyards in California’s Napa Valley. Rocky, a beefy Harris hawk with long white-tipped tail feathers gently preens his marbled wings while E.B., a hybrid barbary and saker falcon with a dappled white-and-brown chest, keeps his gaze trained on a row of neatly plaited grapevines. Hootbert’s eyelids flutter sleepily over his big yellow spectacled owl eyes. […]

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