Never let it be said that Pale Male, New York's famous high-rise hawk, is not a cosmopolitan sort of bird. He's traded in one tony Manhattan address for another — this time near Helen Gurley Brown.
The 14-year-old red-tailed hawk — and his mate, Lola — have lately been spotted on a 24th floor tower of an exclusive building on the west side of Central Park that is home to Brown, the pioneering editor of Cosmopolitan magazine.
Lola and Pale Male have attracted a wide following among wildlife enthusiasts because they've been nesting and raising chicks in the middle of the city, using Central Park as a buffet.
The hawks' fame soared in December 2004 when occupants of a Fifth Avenue co-op — which included actress Mary Tyler Moore and CNN anchor Paula Zahn — had the nest removed, claiming the birds were creating a health hazard by dropping animal parts on the sidewalk and their entrance canopy.
The nest was restored after strenuous objections from birders and wildlife officials. But the hawks apparently decided to try finding a new perch on the other side of the park.
Their latest roosting spot is on a tower atop the massive Beresford Apartments where opera singer Beverly Sills and comedian Jerry Seinfeld are among celebrity residents and Brown lives in a multilevel apartment.
Brown, now senior editor of Cosmopolitan International, which produces dozens of foreign editions of the magazine, said she had not actually seen the hawks, whose roost is two floors above the terrace of her multilevel apartment, but was delighted they were visiting the Beresford.
Not so her husband, film and Broadway producer David Brown, who she said was less than pleased with the attention.
"David doesn't want to have anything to do with this. We've never had such a serious argument and we rarely fight about anything," she said in a telephone interview.
Pale Male and Lola produced seven chicks at their 12th floor nest overlooking Fifth Avenue between 2002 and 2004 but none last year or this. Once the nesting season ends, they roam Central Park but would be expected to return next spring to the nest.
Brown, 84, whose book, "Sex and the Single Girl," was a best-seller in 1962, said she was not concerned about the hawks depositing garbage on her terrace.
"We'd simply have it cleaned up," she said.