A pair of eagles in a California nest have taken on an unusual addition – two baby red-tailed hawks.
The first red-tailed hawk was brought to the nest in May. It was likely initially brought as prey for the eaglet already in the nest, but the eagles began to raise it as their own young, with a second red-tailed hawk joining the nest later.
Red-tailed hawks can make a begging call which sounds similar to an eaglet’s begging call, according to the Friends of the Redding Eagles Facebook page, to which the adult eagles responded to and began caring for as their own.
Red-tailed hawks are typically smaller than bald eagles, reaching a wingspan between 3.4 and 4.8 feet as adults, while a bald eagle’s wingspan can reach between 5.9 and 7.5 feet as an adult.
The smaller of the two hawks died earlier in June, but the other hawk remains alive and under the care of the adult eagles.
According to the Facebook page, the adult eagles bring food around four times a day, but both the eaglet and the remaining hawk are now old enough to self feed.
This is not the first time a red-tailed hawk has been taken in by eagles. Researchers and birdwatchers observed the occurrence on Vancouver Island, British Columbia in 2017, and another red-tailed hawk and eagle pairing was found in Redding, California, by the Friends of the Redding Eagles Facebook again in 2019.
The eaglet has been named Lola and the hawklet has been named Tuffy 2, not to be confused with the other Tuffy the 2019 Redding eagle-hawk pairing. The precise location of the nest, located in Northern California, has not been shared for the birds’ safety.
