What’s Going On?

At a rest stop, I looked up at a distant tree and saw a large bird. Because of its white tail and its size, I thought it might be a bald eagle.

What do you think might be going on?

BEFORE

Fortunately, I had taken a photo before this eagle had landed in the tree. What I found was that there was another eagle higher up near the top of the tree.

WHAT HAPPENED NEXT?

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Although the bald eagle is often referred to as the King or Master of the Birds because it is an apex predator and can fly higher than other birds can follow, they also chooses its battles and manages the energy it may cost them to chase smaller birds.

With this bald eagle’s mate in the tree, she may have chosen the perch while the smaller bird, a red-tailed hawk landed lower down. This was not a nesting site and the smaller bird was not challenging the female higher up in the tree, so the male eagle likely intended to warn the smaller bird who’s boss.

Here’s a zoom in of the photo above:

The red-tailed hawk didn’t seem to move because moving quickly could have triggered an predator-prey attack response, and it even looked down, showing deference rather than challenge the eagle.

But the hawk was provoked by flying to a tree where one bald eagle was already perched. It likely was defending its territory because its nest was nearby. Eagles have an advantage over red-tailed hawks in flight because of their open-air speed and strength, but in a perched situation, the red-tailed hawk may be in a stronger position because of its maneuverability and smaller size.

So it does make sense that both wanted the other to know they were in the same area. Eagles tend to hunt more fish and red-tailed hawks more small mammals, so there is no direct competition for food.

Bald eagles have been known to plunder red-tailed hawk nests, but red-tailed hawks have also been noticed to prey on young eaglets, so when these birds come together, there is no love lost between them, but also no commitment to mortal combat.

How do we know the small bird isn’t a juvenile eagle?

There is wide variation between feather pattern coloring among bald eagles. For example (from Wikimedia):

But the size difference between the two birds, as well as the smaller relative beak size on the smaller bird is the clearest indicator that the smaller bird is a hawk and not juvenile bald eagle. During the brown stages of the juvenile eagle, its size is similar to its parents.

Territory Warning or Family Lecture?