Eat, prey, love: bald eagles adopt baby hawk into their nest in Canada
The hawk, which is usually prey for eagles, is in excellent health after being taken in, and now ‘thinks he’s a bald eagle’, according to one expert
Ashifa Kassam in Toronto
@ashifa_k
Friday 28 July 2017 14.48 EDT
Biologists and bird watchers in Canada are closely monitoring a young red-tailed hawk that has – against all odds – been adopted into a nest full of bald eagles and is seemingly thriving after taking on eagle-like behaviour.
The chick was first seen in the nest in British Columbia in early June, said biologists – possibly after one of the bald eagles raided a hawk’s nest to provide food for their young.
Surrounded by three eaglets and oblivious to his status as prey, the hawk probably began squawking for food, leading the bald eagles to begin feeding it as one of their own.
“My guess is that this little guy begged loud and hard for food – not even thinking about the danger,” David Bird of the Hancock Wildlife Foundation, which has been monitoring the nest on Vancouver Island, told the Vancouver Sun. “Food overrides everything in these birds. He begged away and Mom and Dad said, ‘OK, here’s an open, gaping beak. Let’s put food in it.’”
More:
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/jul/28/bald-eagles-adopt-baby-hawk-into-their-nest-in-canada
