Red-tailed hawks usually fear eagles in nature, competing for similar prey -- and sometimes becoming prey themselves. But in Sidney, B.C., one bald eagle is defying the usual bird politics, taking a baby hawk into her nest and under her wing.
Dr. David Bird, of the Hancock Wildlife Foundation, says the female bald eagle most likely snatched the four-week old red-tailed hawk from its nest with the intention of serving it as food to her eaglets. But instead, something unbelievable occurred.
“What probably happened in this case is that when they brought this little guy back, he probably begged for food, as he would do, not even realizing the danger it was in,” said Dr. Bird, who has been helping to monitor the nest.
The hawk’s desperate squawks likely triggered the mother eagle’s instinct to feed, rather than eat the baby bird.
“So it saw the begging young, started giving it food, and now it’s got to the stage where it begs for food very, very well.”
The red-tailed hawk is currently sharing a nest with three eaglets, who are all twice its size.
“It’s extremely rare for this kind of thing to have happened,” Bird said. “I know it’s been documented two or three times sort of in the history of science.”
While the baby hawk has so far defied the odds, it’s not out of the woods yet. If the family’s food situation becomes tight, it’s possible the eaglets could attack the hawk.
“(If) one of those eaglets gets hungry, they’re going to look at this little hawk and say ‘I’m bigger than you, you’re weaker than me and I’m going to just squeeze the life out of you and start eating you.’”
But if all goes well, the little hawk will likely attempt to make its first flight in the next week or so, and once it’s soaring on its own, it should have a fighting chance.
The Hancock Foundation will continue to monitor the nest and post updates on its website.
With a report from CTV Vancouver’s Rob Buffam
Here’s a video of the mother eagle feeding the hawk as well as her own young.
