Not a high-quality capture but one that showcases some pretty darned cool behavior.
Taken a few weeks ago at my favorite bald eagle nest. As I was observing mama and her two eaglets, I see a red-tailed hawk approaching. That wasn’t surprising as they too have a nest in the area. What was unusual was the hawk did not give a wide berth to the eagle’s home like it usually does and in fact, almost seemed to forget the eagles were there and tried to land in the same tree!
Needless to say, mama eagle was not happy and raised a huge ruckus, sounding off and flapping her wings. The hawk quickly realized its mistake and moved on, a wise choice for sure.
Bald eagles are actually pretty social, tolerating other eagles and even hawks – except when it is nesting season. During that time, they defend their home territory vigorously as this shows.
