Fly like an Eagle

You may want to visit the GTM Research Reserve’s Exhibit Hall from about October to May. Then, check out the telescope at the back of the room. If you’re lucky, you might spot a bald eagle in a nest high up in the trees across the Guana River! Florida has over 1,500 nesting eagle pairs with one of the highest eagle populations behind Minnesota and Alaska.

A pair of bald eagles in a tree across from the Exhibit Hall

 

Around October or November, you could view two adult eagles building a nest - bringing sticks to it or repairing the one they reuse many years in a row. Did you know that an eagle’s nest can weigh over a ton? That’s over 2,000 pounds!

 

Laying eggs usually begins in late November with the incubation period taking about 33-35 days. Each adult takes turns incubating the eggs. You can see one on the nest or even exchanging positions with the other, which then takes over sitting on the eggs.

Once the eggs hatch, the adult eagles start bringing food to the baby eagles (nestlings). There may be as many as three to four nestlings depending on the availability of food in the area. After about two weeks you may see the nestling lifting its head in the nest. Within about 12 to 16 weeks, the eaglets will usually leave the nest and fly around the area.

The eaglets return to the nest for a few more weeks with the parents continuing to feed them until they are able to feed themselves. Sometime in March or April they are off flying the wild blue yonder and taking care of themselves!  

We don't have an eagle cam at the estuary, but here is one I located where bald eagles await hatching of the final egg. 

 

Federal regulations protect eagles and eagle nests requiring that a person not come within 330 feet of a nest. But you're free to observe them all you want through the telescope at the Exhibit Hall!