Hi Jeremy! Thanks for the comments. Note that the next day one of the young hawks was dead in this nest. We '*think* maybe the snake was too much for the youngster to handle alive. :-(

Oh man! If only the mother was there, she would have straightened everything out with that snake! Typically she will purposely give the nestlings larger pieces to test if the fledglings can swallow them easily. If not, the mother would have yanked it out of their beak! But this one might not have ever learned, only because the other fledglings might have taken the larger pieces! So, that's why this hawk suffered that fate! That hawk was the weakest link, and as the wise saying goes, only the strong survive! And also, that snake must have been too powerful and the hawk didn't realize that he should have finished off the snake before completely swallowing it!