Our two eaglets are now about one month old, and we’re clearly seeing feathers developing on both birds, but especially on our older chick. These pin feathers are visible mostly on their backs and along the edges of their wings.

If you’re new to the term “pin feathers” it basically means newly forming feathers. As each feather develops, it is encased in a thin shaft of waxy keratin (like your fingernails), which will eventually fall off or be pulled off by the eaglet, thus allowing the new feather to unfurl and grow to its full size. Looking at the little sheaths and pointy new feathers from a distance, they look like little pins on the eaglets’ bodies. To show you a close-up example, here’s a great look at pin feathers on an osprey chick. In the photo, you can see the shaft (it’s blue because it’s filled with blood, which feeds the feather), and the feather that’s protruding out. The blood supply is also why pin feathers are sometimes called blood feathers.

An adult bald eagle can have around 7,000 feathers on its body, and although the feathers are light, together they will weigh twice as much as the eagle’s skeleton.

Under U.S. and Canadian law, a permit is required for anyone to possess authentic bald eagle or golden eagle feathers. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service runs the National Eagle Repository in Colorado where feathers from dead eagles are collected and distributed to Native Americans so they can legally use them for their ceremonial purposes.

According to the National Eagle Repository, the demand is great and “applicants can expect to wait about 3 and one half years for a whole bird order to be filled. Approximately 95% of the orders are for whole eagles. Currently, there are over 5000 people on the waiting list for approximately 1000 eagles the Repository receives each year.”

Possession of live or dead eagles or their feathers, without special permits, is a federal offense, punishable by stiff fines and possible prison sentences, but unfortunately that does not discourage some parties from killing eagles and moving them across the border between the U.S. and Canada. Eagle traffic on the black market amounts to millions of dollars each year, and a single bald eagle feather head dress can bring more than $10,000.

For our bald eaglets, their feathers are important not because they’re valued by humans, but because these feathers will give them the power of flight. Although our eaglets are only four weeks old, we would expect them to possibly fledge as early as 10 weeks old, although it might be as long as 13-14 weeks depending on the individual eaglet.

As the eaglets’ feathers continue to come in, the young birds will start to look a little comical in that they’ll be sporting various combinations of down and developing feathers. In this photo of a young bald eaglet, you can see the youngster has white down on its head, darker down on some of its lower body and newly developing feathers — all at the same time! Eventually the down will disappear from view and we’ll only see the coating of dark brown feathers. Right before our eaglets fledge, they will look like this — like a handsome and powerful raptor.

As I mentioned on the cam page a while back, it’s hard to believe that our little flapping balls of fuzz will grow into mighty soaring birds of prey, but that’s part of the miracle of nature. And we’re very lucky to be along for the ride.

We’ll update both our galleries later this week. Thanks to those sending in their photos.

Until next time,
Lisa – webmaster
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As a treat, we have a video on YouTube of our pelican gang at the Refuge. In this clip, which was taken recently, you see our pelican group along with some tundra swans and Canada geese that were all hanging out together in the marsh. We expect the swans to be heading north any day now.

Eaglet Update

Our eaglets are now three weeks old, and they’re making remarkable progress each week. We can see the first traces of pin feathers on their bodies (we’ll talk more about pin feathers in the next post), and we’ve also seen a couple shots (like the one on the right) where the eaglets seem to be trying to pull off food for themselves.

In this post, we have several videos that offer further insights into our eaglets’ rapidly maturing personalities, so we hope you enjoy them. But before I get to them, I wanted to offer two quick Eagle Cam mentions. First, for those of you watching the Carolina Raptor Center Eagle Cam, be aware that they’re saying Noah will be moved to a hacking tower on March 27. He has captive parents, but Noah will be a wild eagle, so they need to move him to a place where he can properly fledge.

And second, we want to offer a big congratulations to our good friends at the NCTC Eagle Cam in West Virginia. No Eagle Cam had a worse time with the snow than their cam, and out of four eggs, only one has hatched — but that was still a surprise. We hear that the great folks at the NCTC Eagle Cam blog have named the sole eaglet Palmer, after Deb Palmer, who was a wonderful person and big supporter of both the NCTC cam and our Blackwater cams, and even helped with reestablishing the osprey population in her home state of South Dakota. Deb unexpectedly passed away at the end of last year, so the NCTC fans wanted the eaglet named after her.

Videos

And now on to our videos. Please note that the videos below are also being offered on our YouTube channel for those who prefer to view them that way. For the clips below, left-click on the link to play the Windows Media Video file or right-click and choose “Save As” to download to your computer.

In our first video, which is from March 11, we see the mother eagle indicating that she wants to feed the chicks, so the father gets off the youngsters. Next we see the younger eaglet take an unexpected peck at the older bird, and considering that the younger chick is smaller, this is a bold move that naturally produces a strong reaction from our older chick.

Cam watchers have asked me about sibling rivalry, considering how much food is in the nest this year. We do see some pecking, because it’s in the nature of raptor chicks to peck, but the rivalry has been much less this year. Often the older chick will get fed first, but before long, the younger bird steps up and gets fed right beside its sibling — like a little chorus line — where in years past, the older bird was fed until it was almost full, then the younger bird was fed.

In our second clip, which is from March 14, we see an example of a very democratic feeding session. The younger bird is facing the parent in the beginning of the session, so it gets fed first. Then the older bird joins in, and even though the younger bird acts a bit submissive, both birds continue to feed together.

Something else to notice in this clip is how at one point the mother twists her neck to pull off a piece of fish. Tearing off fish pieces — especially from a newly caught meal — can be hard work, which is why the parent does the ripping at this stage of the eaglets’ development. Eventually the eaglets will have strong enough necks and beaks to do the ripping themselves.

In our third clip, which is the first from March 19, we see a good example of the chicks trying to cool off. Last week we had some mild temperatures and bright sunshine, and since the eaglets are sporting their heavier down, they got a bit hot. To cool themselves off, they spread out their legs, pant, and try to find any shade they can. Sometimes the shade they seek out is created by the parent’s body, as we see in this clip.

And in our final clip, which is the second from March 19, we see the mother eagle arrive with some fresh grass in her talons. She promptly puts the grass on the eaglets, covering our younger bird. We then see our older bird backing up to the edge of the nest to slice, and then the mother settles over the chicks for a nap. These days, however, the eaglets are just too big to fully cover.

We hope you enjoyed the latest installment of our video clips. In our next web log post we’ll discuss the development of our eaglets’ feathers and what they’ll look like when they turn into impressive immature eagles.

Also, we’re making plans to start our Eaglet-Naming Contest in about two weeks, so start thinking up your names. Normally we prefer gender-neutral names (since we don’t know the gender of our eaglets yet), but we’ll take all kinds of submissions.

To give you some guidance, last year our chicks were named Chesapeake and Choptank because Blackwater Refuge is near the Choptank River and the Chesapeake Bay. Other name combinations have been Intrepid and Destiny (2008), Justice and Majesty (2007), Waiwash and Nause (a local Indian tribe near the Refuge, 2006), and Athos, Porthos, and Aramis (The Three Musketeers, 2005).

Until next time,

Lisa – webmaster
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eagle, wildlife refuge, eaglets, eagle video, Blackwater Refuge, Maryland

Their heads are the last place where they’ll lose their first white, fuzzy coat of down, so if you look closely, you can see the eaglets are getting a little white cap where the old down still shows — eventually this will be replaced with the darker down, and then feathers.

Speaking of feathers, today we saw a photo that seemed to show tiny pin feathers on the tail of our older bird. At least that’s what it looked like.

We’re also beginning to more easily see the eaglets’ big yellow feet. The youngsters’ feet and beaks will grow to adult size first, so you’ll notice the chicks looking a little funny with their big awkward feet sticking out in front of them.

Eagle Photos

We also have some interesting photos to share regarding other eagles. As many of you know, the Norfolk Eagle Cam now has three chicks. These parents are normally very good providers, so the birds should do well. Here’s a cute photo of one of them being fed.

Also, here’s a funny photo from the Carolina Raptor Center Eagle Cam, showing the mother doing some rearranging of the furniture — she’s going to poke an eye out if she’s not careful.

And finally, here’s a blog from one of our cam watchers who has put together some very nice slideshows of our Blackwater eaglets — with the photos displayed at an extra-large size.

Much thanks to all those who sent these in.

News from Blackwater NWR

Despite the rain, our Eagle Festival was a success this past Saturday, and we thank all those who braved the elements to come out and see the wildlife and the Refuge.

Tom Lorsung — who was one of the exhibiting photographers — sent me a photo of our white pelicans, which he took while at the Festival. According to our ranger, this past week was the first time that the pelicans have been seen all winter.

White pelicans aren’t normally seen this far north on the East Coast, but they’ve discovered the Refuge and they keep coming back year after year — often bringing friends with them. We’re happy they think the Refuge is a nice place to be, even though we’re always a little surprised to see them this far out of their range.

We’ll post an update to our Eagle Cam Gallery later this week; thanks to all those who have been sending in photos of our adorable chicks. They won’t be this cute for much longer.

Until next time,

Lisa – webmaster
Support the Blackwater Cams
Contact

Tags:
eagles, eagle cam, wildlife refuge, Blackwater Refuge, Maryland