Savvy hawk snags piece of plastic and puts it to use protecting her young, video shows

A red-tailed hawk in California mastered the art of recycling this week when it came up with an unexpected use for trash.

The nesting hawk is seen on camera April 2 using a piece of plastic like a blanket for her eggs.

Police in Clovis, 220 miles northeast of Los Angeles, posted the odd scene on Facebook Wednesday, and the video has been viewed 6,400 times as of Friday morning.

“One person’s trash is another one’s treasure!” wrote the Clovis Police. “A piece of plastic became an umbrella for the red-tailed hawk mom to protect her eggs from the rain on top of the water tower in Old Town Clovis!”

Clovis Police have been posting video updates for two weeks in anticipation of the four eggs hatching soon, said police on YouTube. It takes 28 to 35 days for red-tailed hawk eggs to hatch, says Audubon.org.

The male and female hawks showed up around March 22 and took over what had been an abandoned nest in the water tower, according to police tweets.

Red-tailed hawks are known to take over old nests, which they “refurbish” for a new brood, according to AllAboutBirds.com.

NBC-4 in Los Angeles reports Clovis police are watching the birds on a camera that was erected to monitor activities on the streets below.

The same camera followed a hawk couple using the same nest last year to raise three chicks, reported News.com.AU.

This story was originally published April 5, 2019 at 10:34 AM.