Bald eagle raises falcon as its own child

Tuffy , the red-tailed hawk chick stolen from its nest by a bald eagle on May 20, is living with the kidnapper's family in the Bay Area woods.

Red-tailed eagle chicks grow up in an eagle's nest. Photo: Doug Gillard — Red-tailed eagle chicks grow up in an eagle's nest. Photo: *Doug Gillard*

The foster parents brought food home for Tuffy and their biological child, Lona. Tuffy grew very quickly, and in the past week, he successfully flew several flights, according to the Los Angeles Times . The incident surprised bird watchers, for whom bald eagles and red-tailed hawks are "natural enemies." This behavior is extremely rare and has only been recorded four times in the wild.

Doug Gillard, professor of anatomy and physiology at Life Chiropractic College West in Hayward, photographed the eagle family six weeks ago. He discovered the nest last year and returned in January to watch the eagles mate, nest in a eucalyptus tree, incubate the eggs, feed and care for the new chick, Lona.

The bald eagle was removed from the US Endangered Species list in 2017 but remains endangered in California. It has a wingspan of 8 feet and weighs 8 to 15 pounds. The red-tailed eagle is smaller and more abundant. It has half the wingspan of an eagle and weighs about 2 pounds. This binocular view of Tuffy and Lola clearly shows the size difference between the two species.

Gillard saw the female eagle drop Tuffy into the nest on May 20. He was surprised to find it alive the next day. A week later, a second eaglet appeared in the nest, but it was much smaller and disappeared overnight. A nearby cattle rancher told Gillard the male eagle had killed it.

No one knows for sure what’s going on, but some experts say the female eagle may pick off the young red-tailed eagle while she’s foraging for food for her chicks. After dropping the eagle in the nest and hearing its calls, the female eagle may become confused. “I’ve read about some similar adoptions where the baby eagle was brought back to the nest as prey and survived,” says Cheryl Dykstra, a raptor researcher and editor of the journal Raptor Research. “The parent eagle then started feeding the eaglet as if it were their own.”

Dykstra says the behavior has also been documented in several other raptor species, including white-tailed sea eagles that adopt hawks. "It's unclear whether raptors can differentiate between their own chicks, but they typically don't show aggression toward adopted chicks," Dykstra says.

Jordan Spyke, director of bird rescue and operations at the Montana Bird Conservancy, speculates that the eagle didn't know the young red-tailed hawk was still alive when it caught it because hawks often lie flat when they see predators, especially when they are young.

An Khang (According to Los Angeles Times )

Source link