Love is a many "feathered" thing for red-tailed hawks Christo, Dora and Nora of the East Village.
A male hawk with two female mates? Odd, because hawks are monogamous. Many mate for life.
"He's pretty extaordinary," said photographer Laura Goggin. "He knows how to pick them."
Goggin has been blogging and snapping photos of the threesome.
The real-life drama took flight months ago. Dora, who has raised many chicks with Christo over four years, left to get rehab on an injured wing.
"While she was away, another female came and took her place," Goggin said. "That's the natural sequence of events.
That female was Nora.
Maybe Christo believed Dora wasn't coming back. But then she did, last week.
"She was brought back to her territory. So her mate Christo was a little surprised because now, he's got two mates," Goggin said. "So far, there has been no conflict. They've been staying away from each other, so there's been peace."
Others wonder what would happen if the situation was reversed.
"If there were two males, like another male showed up? I kind of don't think he would like that. I don't think he would accept that," said birdwatcher Loyan Beausoleil.
Beausoleil, Goggin and others have noticed Christo splitting his time between Dora's nest in Tompkins Square Park and Nora's nest a few blocks away. Goggin likes to think Christo is trying to make the best of an "hawkward" situation.
"Being the guy that he is, he's not going to forget his first mate and he's not going to abandon his second mate, so we've got a three-way relationship going," she said. "Dora is living in the park. She's got a nest here. She's loyal to that. Nora, the second one, is over, she tends to be staying over on Avenue D in a housing complex over there.
There have been many red-tailed hawk stories in the city over the years, but maybe nothing quite as strange as this bizarre hawk triangle.