A bald eagle that went viral for protecting her eggs through a Minnesota winter with multiple snow storms has lost her only surviving chick.
Unfortunately, the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources (DNR) recently announced on its website that the Eagle Cam nest,home to the bald eagle family, fell on Sunday. The DNR’s staff went to the site to search for the chick and found it deceased after hours of searching.
The agency said it did not know the cause of the nest’s fall but theorized that it may have been due to the blizzard on April 1, which dumped snow on the branch holding the nest. The DNR also noted that, when found, the nest’s branch was dead, and there were other dead tree branches on the ground in the area of the nest’s fall.
Minnesota Nongame Wildlife Program / facebook
“This is an emotional time for all of us, but please refrain from visiting the nest,” the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources wrote on Facebook. “This was already a major disturbance for the eagles, and many visitors will only cause more stress.”
The bald eagle family first garnered the public’s attention after the Minnesota Department of Natural Resourcesshared a time-lapse video on YouTube last monthfeaturing the female eagle tending to her eggs as snow piled up around her. In one scene, only the mother bird’s head peeks through the snow sitting on her nest. The video has over 42,000 views.
The female bird laid two eggs over the winter, one which broke on February 21 and another which completed its incubation period and hatched on March 26. The agency’s Eagle Cam captured the moment the chick hatched.
The DNR said it was “unlikely” that the female bald eagle would lay another egg this year, even if she had an alternate nest, as “Minnesota’s nesting season is simply too short for her to incubate another egg.” The agency said it would also take “weeks” to rebuild another nest.
The agency noted that the bald eagle parents were spotted flying around the nest’s site after the nest’s fall. According to the DNR, it was likely that the pair would rebuild a nest near the same site because the birds are “loyal to their territory.”
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“We appreciate the amazing community and support of all the EagleCam viewers out there,” the agency said. “Rest assured, we are feeling this with you and are committed to the EagleCam. It will return, either with a new nest in a new location or the same area. For this year, however, the chick season has sadly ended.”
source: people.com
