Harriet the eagle knocked from tree by owl attack

Writer: Joey Pellegrino
Published: Updated:
The moment Harriet the eagle was struck by an owl Nov. 1. Credit: SWFL Eagle Cam

Harriet, one of the two residents of Southwest Florida’s most popular eagle nest, was attacked by an owl in North Fort Myers early Monday morning.

At 7:30 p.m. on Halloween night, Harriet and M-15 were on an outer branch. But at 2:44 a.m. Monday, an owl was filmed swooping in from the right side of one of the nest cameras, colliding with Harriet, who barely hung on before falling to the ground. She returned to the nest later, apparently unharmed.

“It looks like there was a territorial dispute,” said Alison Charney Hussey, executive director at the Center for the Rehabilitation of Wildlife.

In the wild, animals fight to survive. Owls are nocturnal, meaning they are active at night. Eagles are diurnal meaning they sleep when the sun goes down like us.

The Center for the Rehabilitation of Wildlife said this attack is normal.

“It probably wasn’t all that friendly. It wasn’t like a, oh, a fist bump, or, hey, how’s it going? But we know that this has happened before we’ve treated eagles who have been attacked in owl attacks,” said Hussey.

As for if Harriet was targeted, “I don’t know that at night, that that attack was specifically targeting Harriet versus M-15. The females tend to be larger than the males. So you know, you just don’t know.”

People can watch in live real-time what’s going on in the nest, so you have to remember that this is the wild and these things are going to happen.

An attack at night may seem scary and it’s difficult to watch sometimes, but in the end, Harriet did just fine. She’s back up in the nest and that’s all we can hope for.

As for the owl, he could come back as soon as Monday night.

It’s not uncommon for the eagles to be attacked; multiple owls have been seen attacking the raptors over the years. In January, an owl appeared to knock M-15 off the branch.

People from all over the world watch the SWFL eagle camera to see what Harriet and M-15 are up to. In 2015, a struggle between Harriet’s mate, Ozzie, and M-15 led to Ozzie’s death. Harriet and M-15 bonded in late 2015 and have had eaglets since.

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