The Bald Eagle Chicks Are Growing Fast!

May 6, 2008 — The two chicks born in early April are getting bigger every day! At just four weeks of age, they are already approximately one-third their adult size. By the time they are eight weeks old they will be fully grown — with a six-foot wingspan!

Read our Q&A with the biologists out on the island to learn more about the growing chicks. And be sure to keep an eye on the live nest cam during the last week of May, when biologists plan to enter the nests and retrieve the eaglets for banding — you could catch all the action live!

Chick Number Two Emerges From Its Shell!

April 3, 2008 — Two days after its sibling hatched, the second chick has emerged from its shell!

You can watch the chicks every day with the live nest cam. And check back here for future updates about the development of the chicks, including interviews with biologists on Santa Cruz Island.

The First Chick Has Hatched!

April 1, 2008 — The first chick has poked its way out of its shell! Viewers of the live nest cam heard peeps and observed movements early this morning. By 7:30 a.m., the chick had emerged.

The parents — K-10 and K-26 — are busy tending to the new chick and incubating the remaining egg. The second chick is due to hatch any day now. Keep an eye on the nest cam — you could see the hatching live!

They're Back!

March 11, 2008 — For the third year in a row, bald eagles are nesting on The Nature Conservancy's preserve on Santa Cruz Island.

Scientists have spotted three nesting pairs so far, including the birds that researchers labeled K-10 and K-26 — the famous duo whose 2006 chick was the first wild-born eagle on Santa Cruz Island in more than 50 years.

Eagles Go Digital

The webcam on the nest of K-10 and K-26 was launched in 2006 by the Ventura County Office of Education, the National Park Service and the Institute for Wildlife Studies. The nest is located on the portion of Santa Cruz Island owned by The Nature Conservancy.

In 2007, this flagship collaborative effort allowed thousands of people to tune in live and see a chick emerge from its shell early in the morning on April 13. In subsequent months, viewers watched as the chick (tagged A-63) developed to its full size, was banded by biologists and even took its first flight!

Unfortunately, eaglet A-63 was killed just six weeks after fledging the nest. While the somber reality is that 50 percent of eagles don't survive their first year, the death of A-63 was particularly sad for the many fans who had watched his birth and growth via the live web cam.

This year, biologists and interns with the Institute for Wildlife Studies are back working harder than ever to help restore the bald eagle to Santa Cruz and the other northern Channel Islands.

The Story of a Comeback

Bald eagles disappeared from the Channel Islands in the mid 1900s, poisoned by DDT. Chemical companies flushed the pesticide into the ocean via the Los Angeles sewer system until it was banned in the early 1970s.

For more than 20 years scientists tried to reestablish the birds on Santa Catalina Island off the coast of Los Angeles. But the lingering effects of DDT made the birds’ eggshells too thin to hatch without human intervention.

The National Park Service in 2002 began introducing bald eagles to Santa Cruz Island, about 100 miles north of Los Angeles. Sixty-one chicks — around 12 per year — were reintroduced during the five-year program. The first group of eagles reached breeding age in 2006, and that year one female produced a chick with a male from the Catalina Island reintroduction efforts.

The two chicks born on Santa Cruz Island in 2006 were the first chicks to hatch unaided anywhere on the Channel Islands since bald eagle restoration efforts began. The 2007 births made biologists hopeful that DDT levels in eggs have sufficiently declined and bald eagles will once again thrive on the Channel Islands.

One thing is certain: These historic births, which have captivated eagles’ fans around the world, represent a turning point for the future of the majestic bald eagle in the Channel Islands.

Nature picture credits (top to bottom, left to right): Photo © Gary Crabbe / Enlightened Images (Santa Cruz Island); Photo © Institiute for Wildlife Studies (Bald eagle in nest); Photo © National Park Service (Eagle video); Photo © James Glover II/Ventura County Star (Eagle banding).