The giant eagle hugged the black-eared kites like a mother

Nowadays, it is the season when the birds are hatching, and more than 40 young birds have been rescued in the Shenyang Raptor Rescue Center, including more than 30 birds of prey and more than a dozen young birds of other birds. For these young bird orphans, small ones use artificial feeding; for the young bird orphans of large birds of prey black-eared kites (pronounced Tongyi), they borrow foreign methods to use a giant eagle (pronounced tongfang) who has lost the ability to fly and has just laid eggs as a "surrogate mother". In the experiment, the eagle was very fond of the little black-eared kite, and it hugged the little black-eared kite tightly with its abdomen, although the little kite was dying, the eagle still refused to give up.

Orphans of young birds are busy with the rescue center

On June 16, Shenyang Evening News and Shenyang Net reporters learned from the Shenyang Raptor Rescue Center that the center has received a citizen hotline since the beginning of May, and as of now, more than 40 young birds and orphans from various places have been taken in, the highest in the calendar year, while in the spring and summer of the Raptor Rescue Center in previous years, the number of young birds received by the raptor rescue center was more than ten. With the expansion of the influence of raptor rescue centers, dalian and Liaoyang also have citizens calling rescue hotlines, and rescue centers provide rescue guidance for these young birds in other cities throughout the process.

The person in charge of the rescue center told reporters that these young birds are divided into two parts, one part is a bird abandoned in a roadside box in a supermarket and a residential area; and the other part is a sub-adult bird that fell from the nest (Note: sub-adult refers to the animal has left its parents to live independently, but has not yet matured sexually). Many citizens buy illegal means from bird dealers to raise young birds at home, because they are unable to perform the tedious breeding work, and abandon the birds, resulting in a large number of birds "orphans", this problem is very tricky, bringing a lot of breeding pressure to the raptor rescue center.

Orphans are placed in the nest of "adoptive mothers"

In the Raptor Rescue Center, on the one hand, the young birds are artificially raised, on the other hand, the center also draws on foreign experience and uses the motherhood of the egg-laying eagles in the center to feed other raptor young birds so that they can be more adapted to the survival of the wild.

Not long ago, a giant bird that had lost its ability to fly at the Raptor Rescue Center laid two eggs, but the eggs of the big bird did not hatch. Wang Weiyan, the head of the rescue center, said that the young birds trying to feed the big birds must be the young birds of large birds of prey, which are similar in size and are not easy to identify. Last week, a owner of a tire shop sent six young birds to the Raptor Rescue Center, including 3 long-eared owls, 2 black-eared kites, and 1 common eagle, 2 of which were only 3 days old and were large birds of prey, so the center tried to keep them in the nest of the big owls.

The "adoptive mother" warms the kites with body heat

Because these black-eared kites looked like young birds, when they were placed in the nest, they attracted the attention of the mother of the great eagle, who stood on the nest and looked at them all the time. The 2 little black-eared kites were not in a very good state when they were sent, their bodies were very weak, and gradually the big eagle came to the nest and "hugged" the orphans of the black-eared kites under their bodies, covered the birds with feathers, and used their body temperature to warm them.

The next day, the black-eared kites died of excessive weakness, but the eagle still held them and watched the death of the two "orphans", the eagle looked very distressed, and when the staff took them away, the eagle was still in love.

According to experts, the behavior of this giant eagle actively holding the young bird shows that it is full of motherhood and can do this job, and the next large bird of prey rescued by the center will try to continue to let the mother of the big bird feed.

Shenyang Evening News, Shenyang Network reporter Xu Weiwei

Image courtesy of Bird Lover volunteer Han Bin