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Tag Archives: FAQ

Birds and Nest-Building

December 13, 2022 RaptorResource

When I say ‘bird’s nest’, you know the type of nest I’m talking about, right? It could be a bald eagle’s stick platform high up in the branches of a tree. Or perhaps a peregrine falcon’s scrape in dirt, sand, or gravel on a shallow cliff ledge. Or maybe the burrows that bank swallows and belted kingfishers excavate in dirt, the cavity nests that woodpeckers excavate in dead wood, or the woven nests that orioles and weavers build. When I

Eaglet Growth and Development: Week One

March 27, 2022 RaptorResource

We’re writing a series of blogs about the first few weeks of an eaglet’s life. An eaglet spends roughly 75 to 80 days in the nest. For about the first half, it grows and gains weight. For about the second half, it grows flight feathers and starts developing the skills it will need post-fledge. We will focus on week one in this blog. What can we expect in the first week following hatching? Like humans, growing eaglets have developmental milestones.

What Makes Bald Eagles Incubate?

February 23, 2022 RaptorResource

I loved watching Mr. North incubate eggs through today’s snowy weather. He turned his head out of the wind, closed his eyes to protect them from the blowing snow, and fell asleep as the nest rocked gently back and forth. What makes normally active birds like hawks, falcons, and eagles spend so much time sitting on eggs? Hormones, egg production, and broodiness As daylight length increases, birds’ gonads swell. Both sexes produce testosterone, although male birds produce more than female

Why do bald eagles lay eggs in ice and snow?

January 21, 2022 RaptorResource

Why do the Decorah and Decorah North eagles lay eggs in ice and snow? A lot of you – especially those of you who also watch the Florida eagles – are curious about bald eagle egg timing. Wouldn’t it be better to delay egg-laying until mid-March or early April? We’ll unpack the question by starting with a few facts. An Overview of Bald Eagle Nesting Bald eagles don’t all nest at the same time. In the southeastern United States, especially

How do we know falcon Zooey’s age?

March 24, 2021 RaptorResource

How do we know that falcon Zooey is two years old? Peregrine falcons have two distinct age-related plumages: juvenile and adult. Juvenile falcons have heavily barred underparts and brownish topsides (“brown birds”), mature falcons have pale undersides with black-barred bellies and blue/slate topsides (“blue meanies”), and two-year-old falcons like Zooey have a mix of adult and juvenile feathers. I love this stage! Tail Feathers (Retrices) Like all peregrine falcons, Zooey has twelve tailfeathers that are numbered one to six from

Your Questions, Answered: New eagles appear on N2B!

March 4, 2021 RaptorResource

How old are the eagles we saw at N2B this morning? Is the female old enough to lay eggs? Will Mom and DM2 object? We’ve left the Confusion Couch for the Decorah Tilt-A-Whirl, but we’ll answer your questions as best as we can! How old are the eagles we saw at N2B this morning? The male eagle is over five years old, although we aren’t sure how old he is. Eagles complete their transition to adult colors (white head and

When will we be able to tell the sex of the eaglets?

April 28, 2020 RaptorResource

TLDR: We won’t, but read on to learn why!When will we be able to tell the sex of the eaglets? We get asked this question every year. While most of us make private guesses, we don’t make them official – in no small part because we’ve been wrong before! Keep in mind that age is a bigger factor than sex in weight gain and size early in nest life. Sexual dimorphism begins to appear in some variables after about 20

Why don’t Mom and DM2 DO something about all of those beak-bonking battles?

April 17, 2020 RaptorResource

One of the most common questions we’re getting right now is something along the lines of ‘Why don’t Mom and DM2 DO something about all of those beak-bonking battles?‘ We recognize that eagle parents are bonded to their children, so why don’t they stop potentially harmful behavior? It’s umwelt time, so let’s put our eagle heads on and think through the question! Competition is an important part of eagle ‘society’, but eagles also need to surrender food to hungry mates

Your questions, answered: Will the third egg hatch? Why did the first two eaglets hatch so close together?

April 7, 2020 RaptorResource

It’s April 7 and a lot of you are wondering about the third egg. Will it hatch? It could! It has been almost 34 days since Mom laid her third egg, which is 33 days and 20 hours old as I write this. But her third egg almost always hatches 36 to 37 days after it was laid. If she goes 36 days, which is fairly common, hatch should happen on April 9th. We could see pip later today or

#Musings: Place, stories, and eagle intelligence.

March 27, 2020 RaptorResource

Place, as writer Thom Van Dooren points out, can be understood as an embodied, lived, and meaningful environment. Bald eagles clearly have a sense of place. Their territories are woven with layers of attention, meaning, and experience: spots to hunt, perch, and hide from the weather, materials to build and replenish their nests, and mates and family to bond with and care for. Eagles have neighbors beyond counting – squirrels, mice, raccoon, rabbits, muskrat, mink, coyotes, deer, prairie dogs, trout,

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