R.I.P.

Beloved Baby Hawk ‘Tuffy’ Found Dead After Eagle ‘Adoption’ Goes Violently Wrong

A mother eagle reportedly went “psycho” on the young red-tailed hawk after suddenly realizing it was not one of her own babies.

A baby hawk whose “adoption” by a family of eagles amazed birdwatchers in the Bay Area has been found dead after the mother eagle went “psycho.” Doug Gillard, a professor of anatomy and physiology at Life Chiropractic College West in Hayward, told the Los Angeles Times the young red-tailed hawk likely died of starvation. The hawk, nicknamed Tuffy, was found Wednesday morning. Birdwatchers had been closely documenting Tuffy’s integration into an eagle family, surprised to see the mother eagle feeding her and treating her as one of her own. But at some point in recent days, the mother eagle apparently snapped and attacked Tuffy, repeatedly hurling her out of the nest, according to the Times. Gillard wrote on Facebook that “something was very wrong” with the baby hawk after that, and several attempts to rescue her from an oak tree near the eagle’s nest proved futile. David Bird, McGill University emeritus professor and raptor biologist, said the mother eagle may have become hostile after realizing Tuffy was actually a hawk, generally considered an enemy to bald eagles.