Search Results for: development

Peek inside a bald eagle egg: 24 days!

Development of an avian embryo

As of this writing, there are two eagle eggs at Decorah North. The youngest is just over 22 days old and the oldest is just over 25 days old. We anticipate that the oldest egg will hatch on or around the morning of March 23. . What do embryonic eagles look they look like as they develop and grow inside their eggs? Dr. Peter Sharpe from the Institute for Wildlife Studies developed a table of bald eagle embryonic development based

Peek inside a bald eagle egg: 11 days!

Chicken embryos roughly 25% of the way to hatch

What do embryonic eagles look they look like as they develop and grow inside their eggs? Dr. Peter Sharpe from the Institute for Wildlife Studies developed a table of bald eagle embryonic development based on work done by Hamburger and Hamilton (1951). While not all bald eagle eggs hatch in 35 days, the stages of development look something like this… What happens between the third and the 11th day? When we last touched on the topic, our embryonic eagle had

February 18, 2024: A second egg for DNF!

February 18, 2024: DNF laid egg #2 today! We got a brief glimpse beyond the high walls of her grass berm - just enough to confirm egg #2!

DNF laid her second egg today at 2:49 PM nest time. When will her eggs begin hatching? I took a look at our records and saw an interesting variance between 2021 and 2022, although she laid her first and second eggs on the same day both years. In 2021, her first egg hatched on March 25 and her second egg hatched on March 27. In 2022, her first egg hatched on March 27 and her second egg hatched on March

December 1, 2023: NestFlix and News from Decorah, Decorah North, the Flyway, and La Crosse WI!

November 27, 2023: Dinner on the Flyway. Look at those meathooks!

We have your Fri-yay NestFlix! In Decorah, HM plays several visits to N1 and we pull out the Confusion Couch for another season of ‘As The Nest Turns’, while Mr. North and DNF have a date night by IR candlelight at the North Nest. Meanwhile, eagle ice skating has started on the Flyway (good thing they have built-in crampons) and was that an American Kestrel at our US Bank Peregrine Falcon nest box in La Crosse? It was! I loved

What’s on the Menu in Decorah?

Trick or treat/smell our feet/give us something good to eat! Happy Halloween, everyone! As part of today’s spooky candy-filled festivities, we wanted to pass out some fish, a few squirrels, and a little information about what HD, HM, and DH2 enjoyed for dinner last year! Between November 2, 2022 and July 13, 2023, our volunteers documented 407 meals. As we’ve seen at other nests, HD was a master provider, bringing in 316 meals to HM’s 91. He was especially active

Where did our eagle parents go?

May 17, 2023: Watch your toes, HM!

Some of you have expressed concern that our eagle parents aren’t properly caring for or feeding their young. We’re still seeing plenty of parental care – DH2 got three feedings just this morning! – but we’re also seeing a lot less brooding and a lot more alone time. While at least one eagle parent is always in the area, they aren’t always on the nest. What’s going on? Older eaglets no longer require (or want) continuous brooding, and their parents

From bobble heads to eaglets: Natal down, thermal down, and flight feathers!

April 25, 2023: DH2 sprawls comfortably in the nest.

As DH2 starts to sprout pinfeathers, we’re getting questions about natal down, thermal down, and juvenile feathers. Unless otherwise stated, the information in this blog applies to altricial birds, although most research in this area has been done on precocial and semi-precocial birds like ducks, geese, and cranes. Altricial and precocial birds have some marked differences in pre-hatch follicular development and post-hatch molts.   Natal down, thermal down, and juvenile feathers Does thermal down sprout from natal down pores? Do flight

Canada Geese: Precocial versus Altricial

April 28, 2022: The goslings about 36 hours after hatch.

As watchers know, Canada geese are nesting in an abandoned bald eagle nest in Decorah, Iowa. N2B – currently a goose nest – is located about 700 feet east of N1, where HM and HD are nesting. We believe that hatch will begin on or around Saturday, April 22. You can watch that nest here; https://www.raptorresource.org/birdcams/decorah-goose-cam/. This blog discusses some of the differences between altricial eagles and precocial geese!  Altricial eaglets rely on parental care until they fledge. But goslings

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