Caught on camera: Lightning strikes a bald eagle from a tree

BROOMFIELD, Colorado. – It’s like something out of a movie: The video shows two birds perched in a dying cottonwood tree at the Carolyn Holmberg Preserve in Boulder County, Colorado.

The one on the highest branch is the female eagle and the one closest to the nest is the red-tailed hawk.

It’s a serene setting – until suddenly the nest explodes and both birds of prey are knocked unconscious.

Dana Bove, lead researcher at Front Range Eagle Studies, says she’s never seen anything like it before.

“It was really quite shocking. That’s an understatement,” he told FOX 31. “I always figured it probably happened. But no, I’ve never seen it and I’ve never heard of it documented, but I’m sure it’s not very uncommon.”

Moments before the attack: The female eagle is seen on the left and the hawk on the right.

What impressed Bove most was that the female eagle survived and could later be seen flying back to the tree.

“I’ve seen them go through a lot,” he continued.

Bove says they’ve been studying this pair for a decade and have watched as their habitat has shrunk over the years, starting with the construction of a nearby apartment complex.

As development continued around the preserve, bald eagles faced another challenge: a lack of large cottonwood trees to build their nests.

“There are often not many options in these territories, if these nests fall, for them to rebuild themselves.”

The female eagle later returned to the damaged tree.

The trails will close on October 15th to give the couple some peace of mind to rebuild their nest.

But Bove says he wishes more were done to support these eagles.

“One would be to close the trail and the second would be to not exterminate the prairie dogs within a quarter-mile radius of where they nest.”

Bove plans to continue studying the pair as they recover and rebuild their nest.