Hawk Mother: The Story of a Red-Tailed Hawk Who Hatched Chickens

Zoologist Hagedorn tells the story of Sunshine, a red-tailed hawk she adopted after the bird was shot by a hunter and left incapable of surviving in the wild. In plainspoken present-tense narration, Hagedorn details how she has cared for Sunshine over time: “Every day I help her out into the yard so she can bathe in the rain or stretch her broken wing in the warm sunlight.” After Sunshine constructed nests and laid (unfertilized) eggs for several years, Hagedorn tried placing two fertile chicken eggs in Sunshine’s nest, an experiment that paid off when the hawk accepted the chicks that hatched as her own. Large, close-up photographs show Sunshine caring for the chicks until they are full-grown roosters. A tender story of cross-species relationships—most movingly, perhaps, the one between Sunshine and the author. Ages 5–9. (Sept.)