‘This man thinks he is a bald eagle’: immature hawk defies contingency in Sidney, B.C.

A immature red-tailed hawk that has been lifted by a span of bald eagles in a Sidney, B.C., nest continues to plea a odds.

The immature hawk ended adult in a bald eagle’s nest in Roberts Bay in early June — expected dictated as a subsequent dish for their eaglets.

Instead, he survived and became partial of a eagle family.

“This man thinks he is a bald eagle and I consider that is what helped him survive,” pronounced David Bird, an emeritus highbrow of wildlife biology at McGill University who now lives in Sidney.

The hawk expected started vagrant for food after he arrived in a nest, and a eagle relatives started to provide him like a other eaglets, Bird said.

“The final time we laid eyes on him only a few days ago, he’s in glorious health,” he said.

The immature hawk some have nicknamed “Spunky” has prisoner a imagination of bird-watchers in Sidney given he was initial speckled vital with a eagles.

But many wildlife experts did not consider he would make it in a nest full of his healthy predators.

“Initially we suspicion he can’t tarry in this nest. One of his siblings would only simply put a feet on him and that would be a finish of him,” said David Hancock, a wildlife biologist who specializes in bald eagles.

“But he kept eating and flourishing and flattering shortly he grew full size. So he’s a mini small eaglet.”

The immature hawk has to learn to fly and has been speckled striking around in bird baths in Sidney.

But Bird says his subsequent large plea is to figure out how to accumulate his possess food, like a hawk rather than an eagle.

Hawks tend to rest on sport class such as voles and meadow mice, while eagles mostly hunt for fish.

“If he does get so diseased since he is not anticipating food … afterwards we consider it is a no brainer to locate him and take him to a wildlife rehab facility,” he said.

There’s also regard that a immature hawk will not be amply heedful of other eagles, given his surprising upbringing, Hancock said.

But for now, “Spunky” is holding his own.

A devise is also being hatched to spin his story into a documentary film, Bird said.

Article source: http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/hawk-survives-with-eagles-1.4221651?cmp=rss