Eagle

The Bald Eagle can be seen along the sea shore and on major lakes and rives. This species feed on fish, but it can also take advantage of small mammals, birds and even carrion. To survive in the wild, Bald Eagles have to be very efficient fishers. Not all young eaglets survive their first year; the majority of them die because they cannot find food. Parents feed their young till they learn to fly, but don’t teach them hunt and fish. Only the strongest and cleverest Bald Eagles survive and mate.

It’s typical of a Bald Eagle to mate for life and use the same nest for many years. Like most eagles, this species is slow to mature. Bald Eagles are able to breed at the age of 4 or even 5. These birds instinctively realize bad timing for breeding because of weather, food or nesting site availability. A courtship of the Bald Eagles looks like a ritualized battle. They whirl for hours through the air with their talons locked.

Both a male and female prepare a nest (aerie). A young couple builds a new nest in a tree or in a cliff within 50-100 miles of the place where they were hatched. Inside, the aerie is lined with moss, twigs, grass and feathers. A nest left from the previous nesting is usually repaired. Old aeries are about 10 feet wide and several tons in weight. A clutch of 1 to 3 eggs is typical of the Bald Eagle. Both parents share the duty of incubating the eggs and feeding the eaglets, but the female does most of the nesting. While the female incubates the clutch, the male brings her food and green conifer branches. Eagles never leave the eggs unsupervised, because they may become a prey for ravens, gulls, and even squirrels.

To breed, the Bald Eagle needs privacy. If the nest was disturbed by humans, eagles leave it. The incubation lasts for about 35-38 days. While nesting and feeding the young, Bald Eagles are highly territorial; when the young leave the nest, parents don’t stay in the nest for long. The first year of a young Bald Eagle is full of hardships; only about 10-20% of eaglets survive their first year.