Support The Raptor Trust and learn more about a dynamic and endangered hawk species by downloading the beautiful new eBook “Survival: The Red-shouldered Hawks of Allendale, N.J.”

 The eBook, for iPads and iPhones, is a 70-page, full-color book about a family of hawks who have battled long odds to nest in a northern New Jersey suburb for more than a decade.  The download costs $2.99, with half the proceeds going to benefit The Raptor Trust.

“Survival,” written by Jim Wright, features a foreword by Raptor Trust Executive Director Len Soucy.

The book showcases exceptional photography by Jerry Barrack and many other friends of the Celery Farm Natural Area in Allendale.

The Raptor Trust, one of the preeminent avian rehabilitation centers in the United States, saved the life of a Red-shouldered hawk named Laura, who had been found dazed on an Allendale lawn four years ago -- at the time just the latest in a series of tragedies befalling the species in Allendale.

“Survival” is the story of those travails -- and the inspiring, photo-filled story of Laura and her offspring.

This species, named for the reddish feathers on the front of its shoulders, was described more than a century ago as the most common hawk in America. Since then, in a long slow spiral, the hawk has fallen on hard times in many states, including New Jersey.

New Jersey’s Endangered and Non-game Species Program has designated the Red-shoulder an endangered species when nesting and a threatened species other times of year. Both designations indicate the species is in trouble. At last count, there were some 40 nesting pairs statewide.

The book also includes a chapter on the Red-shoulders’ courtship flight, a first-person account of what it’s like to host a Red-shoulder nest, and a reprinted chapter on Red-shoulders from the classic 1898 book “Birds that Hunt and Birds that Are Hunted.”