A red-tailed hawklet that was supposed to be an eaglet鈥檚 dinner has inadvertently become its adopted sibling on a B.C. Gulf Island off Nanaimo.
Pam McCartney, communications director for Gabriola Rescue of Wildlife Society, said the hawklet was dropped in a Gabriola Island eagle鈥檚 nest June 4. GROWLS keeps a webcam trained on the nest so the society and members of the public can watch a pair of eagles raise their young each year.
McCartney said she couldn鈥檛 tell at first what the female eagle had dropped in the nest.
鈥淪he had something kind of big in her talons that looked limp and dead,鈥� McCartney said. 鈥淲as it a bird or a fish? What the heck has she got there?鈥�
When the eagle dropped it in the nest the hawklet started moving.
鈥淚 thought, 鈥榦h, my goodness it鈥檚 alive. We鈥檙e going to have to see something bad,鈥� she said. 鈥淪o, that was hours of anxiety just watching what was going to happen.鈥�
The little hawk was much smaller than the eaglet it was intended as a meal for, but instead of becoming dinner, over time it started snuggling up to the eaglet. The mother eagle kept coming back to the nest, as if to see if its eaglet was going eat the little hawk, but it never prodded the eaglet to move the situation along.
McCartney said the hawk must have been snatched out of a nest by the eagle. It was a rainy and cold and the hawklet, apparently fearful, would hide in the corner of the nest when the mother eagle was there. When the mother eagle would leave, though, the little hawk would snuggle up toward its eaglet nest mate for warmth.
鈥淏y the time nightfall happened, mom was brooding over both of them and sheltering them both from the rain,鈥� McCartney said. 鈥淚t made me very happy.鈥�
Within the next couple of days the hawklet started cheeping for food and before long the female and male eagle were both feeding the little hawk.
鈥淣ow they鈥檙e like best friends,鈥� McCartney said. 鈥淭he hawk鈥檚 probably going to fly out of there soon, but they鈥檙e a happy family.鈥�
She said the nest site has been there for at least 10 years and the current nest was built by the eagles about five years ago after the previous one collapsed.
She said the hawk was probably dropped in the nest alive in an attempt to teach the eaglet how to kill its own food, but the plan didn鈥檛 work out, possibly because the eaglet had a sibling that died and McCartney theorized the eaglet might have associated it with its former nest mate. That bird was pecked at by its sibling and its parents stopped feeding it. It died around mid May.
McCartney said the proper term for a baby hawk is 鈥榚yas,鈥� but she prefers to use the layperson鈥檚 term 鈥榟awklet.鈥�
GROWLS members have named the little hawk Malala after Malala Yousafzai, the Pakistani activist for girls鈥� education and Nobel Peace Prize laureate who was shot by a Taliban gunman in 2012. The name Malala, McCartney said, has become synonymous with 鈥榮urvivor.鈥�
How the little hawk will fare when it leaves the nest remains to be seen. McCartney said red-tailed hawks in the wild are a delicacy for eagles.
鈥淪o if this hawklet is flying away as a juvenile, thinking eagles are its friends, it could be a quick demise for that poor little hawk,鈥� she said. 鈥淲e鈥檒l never know.鈥�
To watch the nest on the GROWLS eagle cam, visit . To learn more about GROWLS and its programs, visit .
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