Bald eagle's deadly raid on osprey nest proves nature is terrifying
Nature is swift, and it's brutal.
A livecam pointed at a high-up osprey nest on Hog Island, Maine recently captured incredible but startling footage: a bald eagle swooping out of nowhere and snaring a juvenile osprey, whose siblings barely escaped the predator's talons.
Steve Kress, director of Audubon Society's Hog Island camp, described the moment as "one of the best videos I’ve ever seen of eagle predation".
The attack illustrates the ecosystem's delicate balance: while the bald eagle population in the US is roaring back from near extinction (which is good), the rising number of are struggling to find enough food to eat (which is bad).
According to Marine Public Broadcasting, when the eagles can't feast on salmon, cod and other fish, they instead hunt seabirds — like ospreys.
These ospreys are the offspring of a couple dubbed Rachel and Steve (who's naming these birds, anyway?), who last year lost all their chicks to a bald eagle raid. Experts had believed this year's brood had grown too big to be snared by an eagle — until the fledgling, nicknamed Spirit, was taken.
On the bright side, Spirit's nest mates Little B and Eric (once again: who is naming these birds) survived the attack —the former even taking his first flight from the nest to dodge the bald eagle.
