14 DAY TRIAL // A bald eagle nest located in south central Minnesota, which is monitored in real time 24/7 by a camera powered by solar energy, has revealed some pretty interesting facts about these large birds of prey. The most surprising of all, however, was an episode when the pair of eagles decided to adopt the unhatched offspring of a duck.
According to My Fox9, one of the raptors caught a duck and brought it to the nest to devour it for dinner. Nothing unusual until this point, as birds of prey use to eat a lot of other birds, so there was nothing odd about it.
But while they were gulping down their prey, the eagles found an egg inside the duck and, instead of chucking and eating it, one of the birds, probably the mother eagle, took it under its own wing. We can safely assume that the maternal instinct kicked in and the bird began taking care of the unhatched egg.
As you can see in the video, the eagle parents, who already have two little babies, moved the egg to the center of their nest to try and hatch it.
Eagles are known to be very caring of their young, but I cannot stop but wonder how they will treat the little duck if the egg really hatches after the incubation period.
There were cases in the past when bald eagles brought prey to the nest and found eggs inside, but usually the eagles ate them as well as the meat. This time, though, the motherly, nurturing impulse took over the hunting instinct and the pair of eagles decided to brood it.
