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Meet our Bald Eagle Pair

(Note: Currently, we do not have an update for the 2007 eagle activity. Once this information becomes available, it will be added to this page.)

This bald eagle pair has successfully raised chicks in this nest for ten years, where they have raised 16-17 chicks.

Many bald eagle pairs only tend to their nests just before laying their eggs, but this pair is very dedicated to their nest year round. They are very territorial and chase away any juvenile eagles who try to visit the nest. It's possible that some of those young eagles are their own chicks but there is no way to know that, and the parents do not recognize their chicks once they have left the nest.

The pair spends a lot of time bringing materials to the nest, which is now about six feet across and 15 feet in height. That is one huge nest! The nest sits in the crook of a massive white pine tree and weighs a LOT. It's interesting to think how they got the first sticks to balance when building their nest. The nest is about 30 feet in the air almost near the top of the tree but with lots of branches around to provide protection.

The nest is close to the Atlantic Ocean in Maine, so the eagles eat food from nearby ocean and freshwater environments. Generally bald eagles are scavengers which eat from already dead animals or fish, so this pair would get a lot of food from the ocean shoreline (the intertidal zone).

As we got closer to the eggs being laid in February 2006, the pair spent more time each day in and near the nest. They did "practice incubation" where they would sit in the nest for 45 minutes to three hours. They would bring sticks to strengthen the nest. They increasingly brought their food to the nest to eat rather than eating it where they found it.

These eggs were laid on March 6. Bald eagles normally incubate their eggs for about 35 days, so we expected the chicks to appear about April 10. However we could not see if this happened because the chicks were down inside the nest.

 Our eagle pair - photo from Wing Goodale
Meet our eagle pair - you can't tell apart the male from the female visually, except that the female is slightly larger.

A juvenile eagle visits the nest - photo from Wing Goodale
On February 5, 2006, a juvenile bald eagle visited the nest and was quickly sent away by the eagle pair.

Bald eagle mother practice incubating photo from Wing Goodale
For the weeks leading up until the eggs, both mother and father eagles practiced incubation by sitting on the nest for 45 minutes to three hours (Photo from February 27, 2006).

All photos: Wing Goodale, BioDiversity Research Institute

Bald Eagle Parenting & Childhood 101

Bald eagles are believed to mate for life.

Bald eagles normally lay two or three eggs. Two eggs is more common. Eggs are normally incubated for about 35 days, typically starting in March with chicks hatching in April. The chicks stay in the nest growing bigger until August.

From April to August, the parents will bring lots of food to the chicks, so we might be in for an interesting array of dead wildlife on our Web cam! Much of the food will be fish, but it can also include seabirds or seals.

The chicks take their time leaving the nest. Gradually, they will work their way out on the branches near the nest after they are about 12 weeks old. Then they will fly but stay in the area. For these many months, they spend most of their time crying to their parents asking for food. In September they will start to forage on their own.

Young eagles are on their own until they are about five years old, when they'll look for a mate. They may return to their old nests to visit their parents, but there is no way to tell if a returning juvenile is related to the pair or not.

There are not really any predators that threaten the bald eagle chicks or eggs as the parents are almost always on the nest and they are quite powerful large birds.

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