Hawk the birdman is a character from the second season of Buck Rogers in the 25th Century and the alien sidekick to Buck Rogers. He is portrayed in the television series by Thom Christopher.
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Hawk is the last of the Birdmen, who had been hunted to extinction by humans, with Hawk as its sole survivor. They originally cohabited the Earth with humans, but when the humans turned to hunting them, they fled to the stars. They stopped flying and eventually lost their wings, yet their avian instinct makes them skilled starfighter pilots. Having seen his people killed by drunken humans, Hawk declares war on the entire human race, and takes to attacking any human spacecraft he encounters. Because of this, Buck Rogers is ordered to capture him. During a duel with Buck, Hawk's mate, Koori, is fatally injured and Buck helps Hawk get her to a healer. She dies, but Hawk is impressed by the fact that Buck offered assistance to an enemy. Having learned that not all humans are evil, Hawk joins the Earth forces, and joins Buck on many subsequent adventures.
Hawk wears black, has a head full of feathers instead of hair, and speaks in an archaic and solemn fashion similar to the muppet Sam the Eagle.
To help develop the character of Hawk, Thom Christopher read books on bird mannerisms, visited the birds section of the American Museum of Natural History and observed real life hawks in the Central Park Zoo.[1]
Hawk has excellent flying instincts, which he inherited from his ancestor, which means he is an extremely good pilot, better even than Buck Rogers. He pilots a one-man spaceship that is designed to look like a predatory bird and has retractable grappling talons. The talons are used in "Time of the Hawk" to grab and destroy spaceships. Hawk also accidentally injures Koori with them during his duel with Buck. In a later episode, "Testimony of a Traitor", Hawk uses them to stop a marine who is pursuing Buck.