We all know that feeling - a large lunch leaves us sprawled out on the sofa, unable to move. This juvenile red-tailed hawk was rendered immobile after eating too much. Photographer Steve Shinn managed to snap the stricken bird of prey on its back after a meal of a coot near a nature preserve in Long Beach, California. He says: I found this bird in a very unhawklike position looking very distressed. I called some folks who work for South Bay Wildlife Recovery. The stuffed critter was collected and taken in for some rest and recovery. A day later it was sitting on a perch and seemed none the worse for the gluttonous rampage.
We periodically get calls for down birds who are young kids that just ate to damn much. We’ll take them sometimes, mostly to make the person who called us happy and release them the next day once they’ve digested.