Their privacy is a priority, so curtains have been drawn to protect them from an adoring public. But the Mail allowed them to open – just a crack – to take a look at the hottest couple in America right now.
One of the two, Murphy, sits motionless on a perch, while a few feet below him a fuzzy gray creature swings clumsily around a square wooden nest lined with mulch and astroturf.
The unlikely couple – a 31-year-old bachelor Bald Eagle and an endearing orphaned eaglet – have become avian superstars in recent weeks, their moves avidly followed on social media (one tweet was viewed 4.5 million times).
For Murphy, it’s been a rollercoaster ride from ridicule to major acclaim.
In the 1990s, he was taken as an injured chick to the World Bird Sanctuary in Valley Park, Missouri, from Oklahoma, some 400 miles away.
Bald eagle Murphy, 31, who perched on a rock and thought it was an egg has become a proud foster father to an injured young eagle
The arrival of a chick – known as Eaglet 23-126 – in dire need of a parent figure gave Murphy the chance to become a father
The reserve handles over 700 birds each year, mostly birds of prey, and is home to some 200 that cannot be released.
His broken leg healed quickly, but while learning to fly, Murphy broke a wing, permanently damaging it, so now he can never be released back into the wild.
He hasn’t been very lucky in love either. Housed with two females and despite building a nest—a move described by shelter staff as an obvious come-on—Murphy never managed to mate with either one. But his brooding instinct was so strong that he would treat a small boulder like an unhatched egg and try to hatch it. He and his “rock baby” inevitably caught the attention of the media and they became an internet sensation.
His behavior was so bizarre at the time that staff put up a sign to reassure visitors. Normally gentle, Murphy became so aggressively protective of the rock — charging screechingly as other eagles approached, forcing them to flee and crouch into a corner — that he was moved to his own enclosure earlier this month.
And so it seemed that Murphy seemed destined to be remembered as America’s most tragic bird: an eagle that couldn’t fly or mate, but was desperate to find its own offspring to care for.
But now tragedy has turned to joy with the arrival of a chick – known as Eaglet 23-126 – in dire need of a parent figure. And Murphy has risen to the challenge in spectacular fashion. Images and videos of him caring for the chick have gone viral. As one fan enthused, “He’s not the stepfather, he’s the father who came forward.”
Murphy has amazed the shelter staff and ornithologists by not only taking on the role of a mother eagle, but putting on a chick that isn’t even his.
Dawn Griffard, director of the Sanctuary, says Murphy may well believe that the rock he so devotedly kept warm has now hatched into the chick he’s raising.
The rock Murphy mistook for an egg in March – led to caretakers labeling him a foster father after he was inspired by his fatherly sense of duty
Ms Griffard says the team strongly believed that any adult male eagle willing to hatch a rock could be at least as diligent when it came to fostering an actual baby bird.
The chick was only a week or two old when it was brought to the shelter last month after strong winds ripped its nest from a tree.
His littermate was killed, but bruised and battered 23-126 – whose sex is as yet indistinguishable – was found helpless on the ground. When he came into Murphy’s enclosure four weeks ago, the keepers initially caged him until they were sure he wouldn’t treat him as a threat and attack.
Now released, it’s more of a galloping adolescent than a cute little baby, having gone from 10.5 ounces to 60 ounces in less than a month.
Murphy was immediately interested. And when the keepers checked one morning to make sure they had both eaten (they get one meal a day at 9:30), they noticed that while Murphy’s fish had been ripped apart, the chick’s food was untouched. At the same time, the chick’s crop—an area under its chin where food is stored—was full, indicating that Murphy had fed it.
Baby eagles learn by watching adults – and Murphy’s attack has since copied him not only from feeding, but also from preening his feathers.
Murphy also defended the chick. On the rare occasions when staff had to enter the enclosure, he moved quickly to place himself between the caretakers and the baby bird.
Fans urged the shelter to name the chick “Rocky,” but it’s considered bad luck to name an animal when the hope is to get it — which is the plan for 23-126 — on a to be released into the wild at any given time.
But getting the chick ready for game is a tricky business. It is critical in these early weeks that the chick ‘imprints’ an adult eagle rather than a human, hence the white curtains around the pairs’ enclosure so that the chick does not see the staff providing food, which is delivered via a parachute is delivered directly into the gutter. housing.
The odd couple can’t be seen in public – the sanctuary keeps fans updated with regular images and videos on its Facebook page – so it’s a rare honor to see them together in their 34ft by 8ft birdhouse.
Fans urged the shelter to name the chick “Rocky,” but it’s considered bad luck to name an animal when the hope is to get it — which is the plan for 23-126 — on a to be released into the wild at any given time
It can be quite an annoying affair, though, because when they’re not soaring majestically through the air or diving to pick prey—which more than justifies their choice as America’s national emblem—Bald Eagles tend to sit still.
However, Murphy suddenly looks up and lets out what sounds like a chuckle — it’s technically known as “clucking” — which my guide, shelter hospital director Kira Klebe, says indicates he’s spotted another bird overhead and is warning him.
A few minutes later, it’s the chick’s turn to exert herself. His legs are still too weak to walk properly, but he can hop around on his hocks, and he suddenly moves toward Murphy, his beak wide open and pleadingly peeping in what’s known as the “feeding call.”
Dad doesn’t feel like it though. Kira points out that the eagle’s crop is full, so 23-126 doesn’t need to be fed.
“In the wild, the most pushy chick gets to eat first, so it would be a 24/7 food call if you let it,” she explains.
New dads don’t always get it right, of course, and Kira admits that Murphy “probably isn’t as attentive to the baby as a woman would be.”
When a tornado passed close to the preserve last week, Murphy allowed the chick to follow it into an exposed part of the enclosure. It was found soaking wet the next day and had to be treated for hypothermia.
But overall, Murphy’s caring instincts came as a huge and heartwarming surprise, the shrine says, his embarrassing days of hatching his “rock baby” now largely forgotten.
While it is true that bald eagles are “very good and instinctive parents” who share parenting, males tend to hunt for food while the females – larger and fiercer, thus more of a predator deterrent – remain in the nest.
“Very, very few males sit on eggs and, apart from him, I haven’t heard of anyone sitting on rocks,” Kira tells me.
Her boss, Dawn Griffard, adds that females have been known to perch on golf balls or pebbles to compensate for not having eggs when spring hormones kick in.
The sanctuary describes the bond between the two birds as “too much for the heart to handle.” But, of course, there comes a time when this couple has to divorce.
Kira says that moment will come in about five to seven weeks when the chick starts to fly. By then, Murphy may be tired of his needy companion after all. Elder eagles begin to ignore chicks when they feel it is time to leave the nest.
Unfortunately, Murphy can’t show the chick how to fly or hunt. While flying is ultimately instinctive – adult bald eagles have a wingspan of up to 8ft – the sanctuary hopes to put live trout in a child’s paddling pool so the eagle can practice scooping them out.
In the summer the bird is released in an area with many wild eagles and where fish often wash up dead, making them an easy target for a novice.
Meanwhile, Murphy will be first in line when a foster parent is needed again.
The response in the US to Murphy and 23-126’s story was “phenomenal,” says Kira.
While their prey may beg to differ, Bald Eagles have a reputation for being desperately romantic birds. They engage in a spectacular aerial courtship where they fly upside down and after mating form an often lifelong bond that some have likened to human love. So perhaps it’s no surprise that Murphy accepted fatherhood with such dedication.