A flightless bald eagle who resorted to incubating a rock has been given the most heartwarming gift: an eaglet to take care of.
Murphy, who lives at the World Bird Sanctuary in Missouri, took to nursing the rock in the giant enclosure he shared with five other bald eagles back in March. After constructing a pretend nest, the 31-year-old bird proceeded to nurture a rock as an egg.
“Our story began when Keeper Kerstin noticed Murphy the eagle protecting a large depression in the ground. The spot was sparsely but carefully decorated with leaves and branches, and featured a simple rock right in the center,” the sanctuary wrote in a Facebook post. “Later that day, Keeper Kerstin saw Murphy sitting on the rock as if it were an egg, and he continued to do so day after day.”
A flightless bald eagle incubates a rock. (Courtesy of World Bird Sanctuary)
World Bird Sanctuary’s facility director, Roger Holloway, told The Epoch Times, Murphy’s behavior might seem strange, but the eagle was just following his natural drive to nurture offspring. “It’s not unheard of that they would do this. Even if they don’t have eggs, their hormonal surge in the spring is to parent and incubate even if it’s not an egg. … It was just sort of a unique situation, and we don’t see it very often,” he said.
The mature male eagle had become so invested that his keepers named the rock, “RockBaby.” Murphy began to cause a huge ruckus, screaming and charging at any bird who came anywhere near his nest. Since the other eagles were getting stressed by his behavior, it was decided that Murphy and RockBaby would be relocated safely away to their own private enclosure.
(Courtesy of World Bird Sanctuary)
Soon after being moved, the rehabilitation department of the sanctuary came up with the idea of introducing Murphy—who was showing strong nesting and parental behavior—to an eaglet whose nest had fallen in a storm.
However, the introduction of the eaglet to his new foster parent was done gradually since the sanctuary also wanted to see how it would all work out.
The eaglet was placed in a “baby jail” which is a box that is constructed with wood framing and wire siding. Additionally, soft blankets covering a heating pad are placed in the bottom before adding the baby to the jail.
The jail was then placed in a larger enclosure where Murphy was housed. According to the sanctuary, this is done to help the adult eagle get into baby mode while also preventing the risk of any physical injury to the baby.
(Courtesy of World Bird Sanctuary)
Murphy the bald eagle meeting the eaglet for the first time. (Courtesy of World Bird Sanctuary)
“[Murphy] showed some degree of curiosity but it wasn’t a really dramatic kind of a situation,” Holloway told The Epoch Times.
When Murphy showed no aggression, but rather curiosity, toward the mini version of himself, the baby was moved to a nesting platform. Perching on the edge of the platform, the two of them stared at each other. Soon Murphy embraced his role as a full-time parent and the staff at the sanctuary noticed that he had even fed the eaglet.
Holloway believes that it’s a “huge coincidence” that Murphy showed signs of incubating at the same time they had a baby eagle to take care of.
Murphy and the baby eagle now appear to be doing great and have settled right in. Holloway has even noticed Murphy standing on his own feeding platform protectively watching over the eaglet as he lies flat in the nest with a belly full of food.
Holloway, who has worked at the sanctuary for the past 35 years, said that Murphy came to the sanctuary as a young eagle after being hatched at a facility in Oklahoma in 1992.
“At that time, there was a big push to help reintroduce bald eagles to the wild since they were endangered throughout our country,” Holloway said. “We were working on doing a reintroduction program here in Missouri and Murphy was sent to us by that facility.”
(Courtesy of World Bird Sanctuary)
When Murphy arrived, he had a broken leg which had to be fixed before he could be taken to the release site. Once he made it to the release site, he broke one of his wings, which prevented him from being released. Since then Murphy has never regained the full extension of one of his wings, he’s still at the sanctuary with Holloway and the team.
The tale of the flightless eagle, the RockBaby, and the eaglet has captured the interest of people across the world.
“I think people need a story like this,” Holloway said. “There’s a lot of difficult news for us to process every day with people being unkind to one another. ”
Since the eaglet took over RockBaby’s position, many are curious to know if he has a name, Holloway says: “Well, we don’t typically name the birds that are here under our rehabilitation permit, but certainly people have thrown out the name Rocky. And since the eaglet took the place of the rock, I think that’s a great nickname for him.”
Watch the video:
(Courtesy of World Bird Sanctuary)