Lovebirds Lose Fifth Avenue Home

NEW YORK — They can’t go home again, but on Wednesday two famous hawks evicted from their nest atop a posh Fifth Avenue building were trying to do just that.

“I heard the cry of a hawk, I looked up and I saw Lola, the female, soaring up Fifth Avenue,” said Parks Commissioner Adrian Benepe.

Across the avenue, Lola’s mate, Pale Male, was sighted in a Central Park tree.

“They were discombobulated, flying around in an agitated way,” Benepe said.

On Tuesday, workmen acting on orders of the building’s owners tore out the hawks’ nest, which lay over an arched cornice.

For the last nine years, thousands of bird lovers have come to see the nest on the 12th-floor ledge that’s been home to Pale Male, so named for his plumage, and a succession of mates. There, he fathered 25 chicks.

The hawks gained fame through television specials and a book, “Red-Tails in Love.”

Bird-watchers and neighbors were angry and dismayed by the nest’s destruction.

“What strikes me is the selfishness of a small group of residents who are scarcely affected, but have robbed thousands of people, including children, of the pleasure of these magnificent birds right by Central Park,” said Alex Matthiessen, executive director of the Riverkeeper environmental organization.