Double baby hawk rescue

Wildlife hospital staff and volunteers recently succeeded in a double baby hawk rescue. The double rescue began when the hospital received a baby red-shouldered hawk, injured by a fall from its nest to the ground. Staff strongly suspected the baby might be an orphan, since its parents had not been spotted. Plus the baby’s nest was nearly 100 feet up in a redwood tree and inaccessible.

While staff were working to heal the orphan, another young red-shouldered hawk fell out of a different nest from a different tree, and was brought to the hospital. This baby was in good health, and adult hawks had been sighted close to where it was found. So hospital staff secured a wicker basket to a tree nearby, and placed the baby inside. Within a few days, the baby in the wicker nest was sighted with a huge crop, meaning its parents were definitely feeding it.

Staff grabbed their chance, and added the orphaned baby to the wicker nest, in hopes that the hawk parents would feed it as their own. The two babies have not fallen out again, and parent hawks have since been sighted on the nest. Hospital team members are hopeful that all is well with the two fledglings and their newly expanded family.