An injured female common kestrel that arrived at the Israel Wildlife Hospital – which is operated by the Ramat Gan Safari and the Israel Nature and Parks Authority – was put into the rehabilitation complex near red falcon chicks whose nest was destroyed by renovations at Kibbutz Galed in northern Israel, and adopted them as her own.
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The female kestrel – a bird of prey species belonging to the kestrel group of the falcon family Falconidae – was administered to the Israel Wildlife Hospital with an injured wing.
When Noa Fisher, one of the nurses at the hospital, entered the recovery ward to feed the falcon chicks, the female kestrel and the chicks stopped chirping and looked at her. Fisher, who understood something special was happening, placed a camera in one of the cages and stepped outside. When she returned to watch the video footage, she saw that the female kestrel had fed the chicks her own food.
The caretakers at the hospital, touched over the parental act, placed the older female together with the younglings.
The heart-warming "adoption" has led hospital caretakers to speculate and believe that when the chicks mature they will be able to return to nature and that now, thanks to the adoption, their chances of survival will be considerably higher due to being less reliant on humans.
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