Do not mess with America's national bird.
An osprey cam from Explore.org captured a rare and intense bald eagle attack on Monday.
The footage shows three osprey chicks sitting in their nest on Hog Island, Maine, while both of their parents are away. Suddenly, a bald eagle can be seen swooping into view with an adult osprey in tow.
One of the chicks flees the nest, while another attempts to defend it and the third ducks for cover. The bald eagle easily grabs the osprey chick who is defending the nest, and flies away.
“It’s an amazing video really,” says Steve Kress, vice president for bird conservation at the National Audubon Society and director of the Audubon Camp on Hog Island. “It’s one of the best videos I’ve ever seen of eagle predation.”
But for some viewers the clip was heartbreaking, especially those who watched the chicks hatch this spring on Explore.org's live cam.
Audubon.org also explains in a post on its website that the parent ospreys, named Rachel and Steve, also endured a bald eagle attack last year which took all their young. And while the clip is impressive to watch, it also shows that bald eagles will attack larger birds such as the chicks seen above.
“I didn’t realize they’d take chicks that big, but now we know they do,” Kress says.
Audubon notes that as the bald eagle population continues to grow, these attacks could become a growing trend for coastal birds.
"They take what’s around and what’s available,” Kress says. And though the activity from the Audubon Camp located nearby usually keeps them away, in the end, “there’s nothing you can really do.”
Fortunately, the two other chicks survived the attack and were seen by Audubon Camp staffers on Tuesday.
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