We’ve blogged about surrogate parenting among birds before, and was intrigued by a fascinating recent story in the Washington Post about a baby Hawk that was stolen from his nest by a Bald Eagle couple and taken along with his sibling to be food for their baby eaglets.
The sibling didn’t make it.
The surviving Hawk, called Spunky by bird watchers following this story, managed to squawk so innocently that he fooled and/or created empathy from the bald Eagle parents. So, instead of chopping him up as food, they became his adopted parents and ended up feeding him along with their kids.
Spunky, though smaller than his new step siblings, learns to fly quickly while the heavier still undeveloped eaglets sit helpless in the nest. He eventually figures out he has other advantages that come with having a Hawk frame and he bullies the eaglet at meal time. This drama is all going down at the British Columbia’s Shoal Harbour Migratory Bird Sanctuary in Canada and it is a tale being followed by bird watchers and others.
Now Spunky may have an identity crisis and think he is an eagle or he may soon learn when he gets into the real world that other eagles may not take too kindly to his brutish behavior.
We’re eager to learn his fate and his story is all quite well written and a very well written read. check it out here!