Go Retire Psychiatrist

We got a video of a Red-tail Hawk eating a mouse—or maybe it’s better to say it looked like it was trying to eat it. The last time we saw the hawks in the nest we saw only one chick in the nest. That was a little over a month ago. I just read that it takes about 4-5 months after hatching for young hawks to hunt for themselves. It looked pretty big. I think this was either a fledgling or an older bird.

We could see two to four hawks flying around but I focused my camera on only one. It seemed to be just lugging around a dead mouse. These birds look pretty big, but the one with the mouse also looked a little tentative with the mouse. I’m not sure it caught it. It looked like it was playing with its food.

I read web articles saying that they usually swallow a small rodent whole. This was a fussy eater, picking at it like it needed more seasoning or maybe ketchup.

Don’t hawks strike their small prey on the ground and then carry it up to a tree and gulp it down like a chicken nugget? Why did this hawk act like it was looking around for a waiter or a knife and fork?

I read that sometimes young Red-tailed hawks might struggle to eat even a smallish critter and may sometimes choke on it and bring it right back up, losing the whole meal. Do they occasionally need another hawk around to do the Heimlich?