Bird Love? A Bald Eagle Visits the OC Zoo

It's like a scene out of Romeo and Juliet, or perhaps the Rapunzel story. A wild bald eagle has taken up residence on a tree just adjacent to a bald eagle enclosure at the Orange County Zoo in Irvine, near Los Angeles. In fact, the wild bird has shown particular interest in the zoo's 6-year-old female bald eagle, Olivia.

According to LAist:

In fact, the pair have been chatting it up--well, squawking back and forth, as the Zoo manager explains, and seem to have struck up a friendship. Is it bald eagle love? Zookeepers aren't sure, since they don't know the sex of the visiting bird, though its size suggests it may be male. They do believe that the wild bald eagle is drawn to the site because "the zoo lies close to an abundant food source: Santiago Creek," which is full of fish following recent rains.

Image: Bald Eagle (Haliaeetus leucocephalus) in the Skagit valley, Washington, USA./Wikimedia Commons