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by OntPhoto on Fri Jun 16, 2017 8:38 pm
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OntPhoto
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How nice of them.  But people speculate what really happened is a bald eagle raided a red-tail hawk nest, taking several young back to the bald eagle nest for food.  Most of the snatched red-tail hawk young meant as dinner for the bald eagles were likely already dead except for the one bird.  Bird psychology I do not understand :-)  Some warblers do incubate cowbird eggs and feed them when they hatch. 

http://vancouversun.com/news/local-news/bird-experts-surprised-by-red-tailed-hawk-chick-surviving-in-bald-eagle-nest


PS.  One of the people quoted in the article is David Bird who used to write a bird column for the Montreal Gazette.  He retired to Sidney, north of Victoria on Vancouver Island. where the eagle nest is located.

Here is actual video.
http://vancouverisland.ctvnews.ca/bald-eagle-defies-nature-by-adopting-not-eating-baby-hawk-1.3448675
 

by Jens Peermann on Sun Jun 25, 2017 9:41 pm
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Eagles and Buzzards (Hawks) belong to the same family, which may help overcoming hesitations to raise the little guy. And the famous European Coocoo (the one with the clock) has a habit similar to that of cowbirds. It lays its eggs in other birds' nests and lets them do the incubating and raising, albeit without monitoring the progress.
A great photograph is absorbed by the eyes and stored in the heart.
 

by OntPhoto on Mon Jun 26, 2017 8:05 pm
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Jens Peermann wrote:Eagles and Buzzards (Hawks) belong to the same family, which may help overcoming hesitations to raise the little guy. And the famous European Coocoo (the one with the clock) has a habit similar to that of cowbirds. It lays its eggs in other birds' nests and lets them do the incubating and raising, albeit without monitoring the progress.
Interesting, I did not know that about the European Cuckoo.  I wonder how many other parasitic type birds are out there.  I still remember my first encounter many years ago.  Excited to see my first red-eyed vireo nest but something was not right. The 2 baby birds being fed were much larger than the adult bird feeding them.  A bittersweet moment as I had hoped to see young vireos.  Only found out later they were young cowbirds. 

A forum to follow the progress of the red-tailed fledgling (yes, it made it, so far).  They even named it Spunky.  Think you would have to have some spunk to survive in a nest with 3 much larger siblings that tower over you and fighting for the same food. I'm still wondering what happens when the first adult red-tail hawk flies by and they realize...take a second look at Spunky...wait a second....  I will have to do some research on how long adult red-tails stay with their young (teaching them how to hunt, etc.).  Hope Spunky makes it on its own.

http://www.hancockwildlife.org/forum/viewtopic.php?showtopic=908803&mode=&show=8&page=45
 

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