Avian Reproduction and the Egg: http://people.eku.edu/ritchisong/avianreproduction.html
What To Expect, Week By Week (Click to enlarge)
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| Plumage 0-4 Weeks |
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| Plumage 5-11 Weeks |
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| Actual pix from NE Fl Nest 2013-2014 |
Feathers: Eaglets progress through 3 different sets of feathers, including natal down, thermal down, and juvenile feathers. Chicks are hatched with a coat of natal down. This down is very lilght in color and does not have much insulating ability, such that chicks must be brooded by an adult for warmth. Natal down is replaced by thermal down beginning around 10 days of age. Thermal down has very good insulating qualities and by 15 days hicks are typically able to thermoregulate on their own. The emergence of juvenile feathers, including contour and flight feathers, typically begins on or before 27 days.
Age progression: http://onthewingphotography.com/wings/2011/02/16/bald-eagles-one-to-five-years-old/
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| Add caption |
Where are Eagle Ears:
http://eaglenest.blogs.wm.edu/2011/03/20/where-are-the-eagles-ears/
Courtship, Copulation, Eggs, and other things romantic: http://raptorresource.blogspot.com/2014/02/courtship-copulation-eggs-and-other.html
Sex, violence, airplanes and comeback of the national bird: http://www.wm.edu/news/stories/2014/sex%2C-violence%2C-airplanes-and-the-comeback-of-the-national-bird123.php?utm_content=bufferf40f9&utm_medium=social&utm_source=facebook.com&utm_campaign=buffer
Eagle Digestive System:
http://books.google.com/books?id=QMauaRiGOVEC&pg=PA27&lpg=PA27&dq=bald+eagle+digestive+system&source=bl&ots=zWJTDg17Hz&sig=GKgJNhZSqjILIkjdsiv3qWT5tbY&hl=en&sa=X&ei=c6hlUdi9CbHJ4AOim4HoCg&ved=0CHkQ6AEwDw#v=onepage&q=bald%20eagle%20digestive%20system&f=false
Eagle Feathers:
http://www.kwic.com/~pagodavista/schoolhouse/species/birds/body.htm
Stages of Eagle Development, as observed by MsO
Week
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ACTION
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1-2
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Eat, poop,
sleep, grow (1-2 oz every day) Eye sight good at 9 days
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2-4
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Lose baby
down and grow woolly secondary down. One foot high. Grow pin and tail
feathers, get white wig and clown feet. 18 in head to tail, wings 2.5 ft, wt
4-5 lbs (gain 4-5 oz every day)
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4-5
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24 inches
head to tail, wingspan 3-4 ft, weigh 6-7 lbs. More feathered.
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5-7
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Continue
to get dark juvie feathers. Stand upright. Try to self feed.
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7-9
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Wingersizing
and hovering. can self feed. Mantle. Weigh 8-9 lbs
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9-10
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Branching.
Sleep outside nest or standing in nest. Fully feathered
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10-12
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Fledge (many
do not survive first flight) Weight has gone from 2-3 oz to 10-12 lbs.
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12-?
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Practice flying. Learn to hunt prey by watching
parents. Leave forever.
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7200 feathers. Live 20-30 yrs in wild, up to 50 yrs in
captivity
eagles cannot swivel eyes,
but can turn head 270 degrees
Number of eggs: (per Patent,
mod at Decorah)
79% - 2
17% - 1
4% - 3
<1 - 4
Female fattens up before eggs
to prepare for long hours incubating and brooding. Will lose weight caring for
eaglets
Nest Diet (20 nests studied)
(per samour, mod at FL)
Fish 56%
Birds 28%
Mammals 14%
Other 2%
Food order of preference:
Stealing, Scavenging Carrion, and lastly, Hunting
A eagle can lift about 50% of
its weight and can fly with 30% of its weight.
Mortality Rates: 30% die
first year, only 1 in 10 live to be adult.
Study says 90% first hatched
is female
More northern eagles (perhaps
less use of DDT)
Female body length 35-37
inches, wind span 79-90 inches. Male 30-34 and 72-85. Avg weight 10-13 lb (with
northern eagles at high end of range)
Eaglets have nest fidelity.
Males usually settle within 38 miles of birth nest and females within 100
miles.
Eagles can fly at altitudes
of 10,000 feet and at speed of 30-35 mph.
Signs of approaching egg laying: Intensified breathing, sometimes with rhythmic opening and closing of the beak. Head is drawn in and body feathers are fluffed out. The tail is kept horizontal or elevated. Then the tip of the tail starts making nodding movements with rhythmic depressions of the rump. These movements are almost invisible to gegin with, but increase in strength and end with a sudden elevation of the rump that marks the moment of egg laying.
Days between eggs: 5% 2 days, 72% 3 days, 20% 4 days, 3% 5 days
Eagles Will Not Abandon Chicks if Human's Touch:
http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=fact-or-fiction-birds-abandon-young-at-human-touch
Eagle Deadbeat Dads, Cheating Wives, and Nest Intrusions:
www.wm.edu/research/ideation/science-and-technology/reality-show314.php
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| See, you hold your wings like this |
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| Pipped and Zipped Egg |
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| Brood Patch |
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Birdie at Harrison Mills Dreaming of a river full of fish
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Eagle Digestive Tract
EAGLE STORY FOR CHILDREN
BY MsOls
Once
upon a time, two eagles fell in love and decided to have some babies. They
picked a nest near Whitehorse, Yukon in Canada. Together they brought in soft
grasses and made a nest bowl surrounded by stick rails. Then dug a hole called an egg cup and the
mama eagle laid three eggs in it. Both
the mama and the daddy sat on the eggs to keep them warm. This is called
incubating the eggs. After 35 days, all three eggs hatched.
In the beginning, the babies were covered
in soft white fuzz, called baby down. They were not strong enough to hold their
heads up straight to be fed, so we called them Bobbleheads. While still babies, they stayed in the egg
cup and were referred to as Hatchlings.
Mom or Dad had to sit on them to keep them warm and safe. This is called
brooding.
After a few days, they were able to climb
out of the egg cup and crawl around the nest bowl. Now they were referred to as
Nestlings. At about two weeks old, they
started to grow dark gray, woolly down to help keep them warm. A parent would still sit on them if it was
very cold, or when raining. The babies
grew very fast, especially their feet and beaks.
Around one month old, they started to get
bumps all over their bodies. Out of these bumps emerged dark brown or black
feathers. Shortly thereafter, they began
to stand up and walk normally. They still crawled sometimes, but needed to
build up their leg muscles.
At six weeks, they began to flap their
wings to make them strong. This is called wingersizing. The parents still bring
in fish or animals to feed the nestlings, but they are trying to learn how to
feed themselves. Soon they will know how to stand on a fish and tear off bites.
As their wings grow stronger, they will
begin to jump around and also up into the air. When the wind is good, they will
go into the air and hover there for a few seconds before coming back down. This
looks kind of scary, but is necessary training for learning to fly.
Once they have learned how to self feed
and to hover, they will begin branching. This means they will leave the flat
nest and hop up onto the rails and poles.
If the nest was in a tree, they could jump onto the tree branches and limbs.
They feel all grown up then, and may begin to sleep standing up like their
parents do.
When they are about 10-12 weeks old, they
will fly for the very first time. This is called fledging and the eaglets will
be called Fledglings. Which tree do you
think they will fly to? They will stay
near the nest for several more weeks and practice flying and to get food from
their parents. They will also follow their parents to the river and learn how
to catch their own fish. Once they learn
all that they need to know, the juveniles will fly away and live happily ever after. (They will not get the white head and tail
until five years old)
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Eagle Deaths by Wind Energy:
http://news.yahoo.com/study-wind-farms-killed-67-eagles-5-years-160226373.html
Info about an Eagle's Weight:
The Body of an eagle is made for flying and for catching prey. To do these things, the body must be light in weight and very strong. To make their bodies lighter in weight, eagles have hollow bones. In some places, there are braces inside the bones to make them stronger. But many parts of the bones have nothing inside them them but air. As incredible as it may seem, the entire skeleton of a Bald eagle weighs only a little more than half a pound (272 grams).
When an eagle flaps its wings, most of the power for flying comes from the downward stroke of the wings. For this reason, the muscles that pull the wings down are much larger than the muscles that pull the wings up. The flight muscles are so Important to an eagle that they often account for half of the bird's total weight.
An eagle can fly faster or slower by changing the position of its wings. When It wants to fly fast, it turns the front edges of the wings into the wind and "cuts through" the air. When the eagle wants to slow itself down, it turns the wide surface of the wings into the wind, and the wings "drag" through the air. There is no room for a sloppy landing on top of a tall tree or on a cliff, so eagles have to be good at landing. To slow themselves for a landing, they spread their wings and tall down, and "drag" them through the air to act like brakes.
It is really amazing to see the many ways in which an eagle's body combines low weight with high strength. There doesn't seem to be an extra ounce of weight anywhere. For example, the feathers on a large eagle can be very sturdy but each feather weighs next to nothing. A Bald eagle has more than 7 thousand feathers, but all of them put together weighs less than 21 ounces (586 grams). If you took 30 of these feathers in your hand, they would weigh less than a penny. (Written by Christine Caro Mudd)
State of Virginia Success Story:
http://www.vagazette.com/news/va-vg-center-for-conservation-biology-records-more-than-200-bald-eagle-nests-on-james-river-20131023,0,7813364.story
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| Egg Tooth |
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Hack Tower
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Lucy's Story:
http://www.eagles4kids.com/daily-updates/2013/1/14/january-14-2012-lets-recap-the-situation-with-lucy.html
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| Lucy's Foot Much Improved |
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| Lucy Incubating Egg in Snow |
Info About Eagle Talons:
http://www.learner.org/jnorth/tm/eagle/Talons.html
How eagles can sleep on a tree limb without falling off: http://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2013/12/why-birds-can-sleep-on-branches-and-not-fall-off/281969/?utm_source=btn-facebook-pckt
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| One Way to Identify Male or Female |
National Eagle Repository: http://www.nbcwashington.com/investigations/Protecting-Eagles-in-Life-and-Death-265758081.html?_osource=SocialFlowFB_DCBrand#
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| Eagle Trasmitter |
Track Oklahoma Eaglets Migration:
http://www.suttoncenter.org/pages/eagle_tracking/39
Eagle Sounds:
http://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/bald_eagle/sounds
Beak and Feet:
http://www.infovisual.info/02/059_en.html
Eagle Intelligence:
http://www.starescue.org/htm/bird-intelligence/bird-brained.htm
Eagle Head Parts:
http://s1138.photobucket.com/user/elfenruler/media/About%20Bald%20Eagles/EagleHead_zps6abbfefe.jpg.html
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| Pin Feathers on Wing |
Feathers:
http://people.eku.edu/ritchisong/feathers.html
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| Nictatating Membrane |
Eagle Tongue:
http://eaglenest.blogs.wm.edu/2012/05/11/female-3-tongue-closeup/
Gender Differences:
http://www.ehow.com/facts_5972433_difference-male-female-bald-eagles.html
Eagle Chick Development:
http://eaglenest.blogs.wm.edu/2011/04/30/bald-eagle-chick-development/
Threats to Eagle Survival:
http://www.eagles.org/vu-study/survival/threats-to-survival.php
Bald Eagle Fact Sheet #1:
http://www.baldeagleinfo.com/eagle/eagle-facts.html
Bald Eagle Fact Sheet #2:
http://www.learner.org/jnorth/www/critters/eagle/826572782.html
Bald Eagle Fact Sheet #3:
http://www.baldeagleinfo.com/
Bald Eagle Fact Sheet #4:
http://www.ccbbirds.org/what-we-do/research/species-of-concern/virginia-eagles/facts-about-eagles/
Bald Eagle Fact Sheet #5:
http://www.hornbyeagles.com/eaglefaq.htm
And more Eagle Facts:
http://www.learner.org/jnorth/tm/eagle/indexCurrent.html
Male Eagle Acts as Foster Parent:
http://www.wxpr.org/post/bald-eagle-models-foster-parenting#.UbvMTqIy0Kt.facebook
Links to Other Cameras:
http://www.beakspeak.com/
Links to Eagle Cameras:
http://eagleholic.wordpress.com/bald-eagle-cams/
Hatching Asynchrony and Brood Reduction:
http://www.stanford.edu/group/stanfordbirds/text/essays/Brood_Reduction.html
‘Siblicide’ is the behaviour of siblings killing each other. It’s most commonly seen in large birds – raptors such as the
Verreaux eagle, that hatch their eggs a few days apart. The dominant (usually the first-born) chick instinctively kills the weaker one – sometimes by pushing it out of the nest, or by pecking and battering it to death with its sharp little beak. Other times, the weaker chick will die indirectly, from starvation, bullied out of eating by it’s older sibling/siblings…
As awful and cruel as this all sounds, siblicide gives the strongest nestling/nestlings the greatest chance of survival – the complete undivided attention of the parent birds who can then focus all of their energy on the remaining stronger chick (It is likely that the other chick was born as an insurance policy, in case something should happen to the first-born or stronger chick).
How to Handle an Injured Raptor:
http://www.vetmed.auburn.edu/home/programs-and-centers/southeastern-raptor-center/about-the-center/injured-raptors2
Bald Eagle Nests:
http://www.learner.org/jnorth/tm/eagle/NestAbout.html
Protecting Birds From Electrocution:
http://www.publicpower.org/Media/magazine/ArticleDetail.cfm?ItemNumber=10208
Laws That Protect Bald Eagles:
http://www.fws.gov/midwest/eagle/protect/
Excerpt from document STATUS OF THE BALD EAGLE
IN BRITISH COLUMBIA
5.2 Canada
Contrary to published reports (Lincer et al.
1979), the Bald Eagle is offered no direct
protection in Canada under Federal law, other
than the prohibition of import or export of
eagles and eagle parts under the Convention
on International Trade in Endangered
Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES)
convention, administered under the Export
and Import Permits Act. Raptors, including
the Bald Eagle, are not included in the
Migratory Birds Convention Act of l9l6
(C.W.S. 1978). Under the British-North
American Act (B.N.A.), each province has
jurisdiction over the wildlife within its borders, and various laws have been enacted in
all provinces offering some protection to the
Bald Eagle. Two provinces, Ontario and New
Brunswick, have passed Endangered Species
legislation, and the Bald Eagle is listed as
Endangered in both provinces (Brownell and
Oldham l983).
Eagle Watcher's Guide and Fact Sheets:
http://www.friendsofblackwater.org/watchersguide.pdf
Nest Building :
http://www.dvrconline.org/builder.html
Largest Eagle Nest of All Time:
http://www.fredmiranda.com/forum/topic/647793
General Info re Nests:
http://www.learner.org/jnorth/tm/eagle/NestAbout1.html
How an Eaglet Gets Out of the Egg:
http://eaglenest.blogs.wm.edu/2010/03/05/how-do-i-get-out-of-this-egg/
Three Eagles Lock Talons:
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1214139/Pictured-Three-eagles-lock-talons-plunge-ground-mid-air-battle-fish.html
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Egg Size Comparison
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Eagle Plummage, 10 days to 5 years:
http://www.swbemc.org/plummage.html
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Pattern For Feather Grow
|
Feather Biology: http://askabiologist.asu.edu/explore/feather-biology
Terms for Eagle Watchers:
http://www.hancockwildlife.org/forum/viewtopic.php?topic=215183#215183
More Terms:
http://raptorresource.blogspot.com/2012/03/decorah-eagle-diction-aerie-and-alpha.html
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| Eagle Eye Test |
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| Eagle Cloud |
The Fledgling
I hear a whispering in the wind
An ancient voice beckoning me to come
It unlocks a yearning deep inside
A primal memory of soaring freely
I lean into the wind and feel its power
I stretch my weak wings and feel its caress
The longing grows as the days march onward
I practice and practice anxiously waiting
The voice becomes stronger - urging me on
I face into the wind and I know - it is time
I flap with all there is within me
Suddenly I am free of the nest
I am where I was destined to be
I severed my earthly bonds
And became one with the wind.
©Wings - 2013
Professional photos of eagles bathing:
http://tonymarkle.zenfolio.com/p371531810/h5845E2FE#h5b63e81a
More Professional photos:
http://ari1982.smugmug.com/Avian/Raptors/Bald-Eagle/26364793_mKB2Rz#!i=2211054108&k=8NTvkRK
and
http://sassephoto.smugmug.com/
