Parham Pourahmad is all the time looking out for fascinating wildlife habits to {photograph}. So, when he obtained wind of a Purple-tailed Hawk fledgling that ended up in a Bald Eagle nest 45 minutes from his California house, he knew it was a second he needed to seize.
The one downside? At 13 years outdated, Parham would wish a bit assist getting there.
Thankfully, his mother and father have been completely satisfied to assist, simply as they’ve since Parham, now 14, first fell in love with pictures within the early days of the pandemic. In search of solace from lockdown, he started spending time at a neighborhood park, the place a nesting pair of Purple-shouldered Hawks caught his consideration. His curiosity widened from there. “I began taking photos of the opposite birds and wildlife, too,” Parham says. “After the pandemic, I began going to parks a bit additional out with even cooler wildlife.”
His obsession with pictures grew—and so did his listing of accolades. This summer season his photograph of mating American Kestrels gained the Youth prize in the 2024 Audubon Photography Awards. Two of his different submissions additionally ranked within the total Top 100 photos. Parham began highschool this August.
{The teenager}’s objective for his pictures? To seize one thing “actually, actually cool.” These fleeting moments come round “possibly a pair instances a yr,” he says—A Western Grebe pair’s mating dance or a cute and playful crimson fox pup—however you wouldn’t realize it from his expertly curated Instagram account, which he often updates along with his beautiful work.
It was whereas browsing Fb that Parham got here throughout the Purple-tailed Hawk taken in by Bald Eagles. The unique photographer didn’t post the nest’s whereabouts, however Parham instantly acknowledged the situation: Joseph D. Grant County Park, simply outdoors San Jose. Predatory birds have been already amongst his favourite topics, so he knew that if he might {photograph} two raptor species without delay—with an uncommon habits besides—it was too good to go up.
A younger hawk rising up in an eagle nest just isn’t with out precedent, however it’s uncommon, in accordance Rob Bierregaard, president of the nonprofit Raptor Analysis Basis. Combined species adoptions have most likely all the time occurred sometimes, however solely lately have photographers been lucky sufficient to doc them, as they’ve twice every in British Columbia and California over the past decade. Whether or not these examples recommend an uptick within the habits—probably linked to the widespread resurgence of Bald Eagles—is unclear, specialists say.
The cruel actuality, although, is that these interactions are removed from cuddly. The eagles Parham photographed little question introduced the Purple-tail to their nest intending to not elevate it, however to feed it to their very own nestling. Nevertheless, when it was deposited into the aerie, the hungry and confused fledgling instantly started begging for meals alongside the eaglets. The confused guardian eagles mistook the hawk as considered one of their very own and commenced treating it in variety. Although shocking, such habits just isn’t surprising when the unsuitable species leads to a nest. That’s as a result of most grownup birds can’t acknowledge their very own chicks from others—a vulnerability that brood parasites exploit by laying eggs in different species’ nests.
Decided to {photograph} this novel state of affairs, Parham set out along with his Nikon D3500 and a Sigma 150-600mm Up to date lens. “I largely simply wished to have one high-quality image to point out the habits that was taking place,” he says. His first journey was a wash, with the younger hawk hunkered down within the nest, which was cloaked by persistent fog. Undeterred, Parham quickly returned on a sunny afternoon and located the hawk and its adopted sibling exploring the branches across the nest. To actually seize the second, he hoped to depict the hawk with considered one of its “mother and father.” After rigorously sneaking as shut he might with out disturbing the birds, he obtained his probability, freezing the younger hawk in time because it cried to the stern-looking eagles.
Sadly, the younger hawk didn’t survive for much longer. A few weeks after Parham took the pictures, the eagles stopped feeding the fledgling and it succumbed to hunger, the identical destiny met by different younger hawks in eagle nests. Nonetheless, capturing these moments offered the general public with a window into the wonder and the complexities of avian life. As Parham himself may put it, that’s actually, actually cool.
