An amazing thing is happening in my home town, here on Vancouver Island. A Bald Eagle raided a hawk’s nest and took a baby to feed their eaglets. But the hawk baby didn’t die and instead started begging for food and now the eagles are feeding it, too!
Well, if you can’t eat 'em, join 'em!
Or fatten them up, *then *eat them.
Very cool story! I hope you come back to update: Does the hawk make it or was it a diabolical scheme to fatten him/her up? I hope the hawk makes it!
BTW - Love Vancouver Island (and the San Juans and Gulf Islands). Lots of great biking and interesting history.
Well the little guy has been living with the eagles now for 2 weeks and he’s growing and doing great! His biggest danger is getting knocked out of the nest by his sibling’s giant wings flapping away. There are some great pictures in the link:
http://www.hancockwildlife.org/forum/viewtopic.php?showtopic=908803&mode=&show=8&page=20
The expert’s name is David Bird. Coincidence? I don’t think so!!! 
That’s going to be one VERY confused hawk when it grows up…
How different are the hunting styles and strategies of the two species? Do they learn to hunt from their parents?
“Sit down, Son. We have something we need to tell you. We think you should know.”
“What is it, Dad?”
“You’re adopted. You are truly our son and we love you completely, but we aren’t your biological parents.”
“Wow… I guess that explains a few things.”
The story of the Ugly Raptor.
It might go like Mr. Eagle saying, “Harriet, is there anything that you should tell me?”
“You mean I’m going to stay this color‽”
Just going from my memory is that Hawks don’t teach the kids to hunt and just continue feeding them while they figure out on their own how to catch mice and snakes and such.
I believe that once the baby hawk fledges, it will return to the nest to beg for food from its “parents” then go off and try hunting on its own.
Which is to say that the hawk, if it can survive and successfully fledge, will not need to be taught by the eagles how to hunt.
“I guess I was really lucky you took me in and raised me as your own. What happened to my hawk family?”
AWKWARD
Like in one of the Twilight Zone show . But I hope the hawk doesn’t get eaten
Somewhat different. Both are soaring birds that mostly hunt from the air rather than a perch, but that’s about it. Bald Eagles are opportunists( happy to take carrion and anything they can catch ), but are primarily fish eaters - maybe 65-90% of the diet depending on the region. Red-Tailed Hawks are generalists, but live mostly off small mammals and only rarely take fish.
Not much, if at all. Raptors are pretty much creatures of instinct, though they do learn by trial and error. Once they are fledged, that’s about it as far as parental care goes.
That’s actually wrong. They’ll feed them increasingly intermittently for a few weeks after, but there isn’t much training involved as such.
Do red-tailed hawks feed their young ones the same food Bald Eagles feed theirs?
Roughly the same range, but much different proportions. Baby eagles would get a majority as fish, but with other critters mixed in. Baby hawks would get mostly small rodents, but with other critters mixed in.
Red-tailed hawks mostly eat small mammals like mice and shrews and small rabbits while Bald Eagles mostly eat fish, small and medium sized mammals like rabbits and raccoons and carrion.