Baby bald eagle rescued after parents accidentally kicked it from the nest

The chicken was sleeping on one of its parents’ feet on Monday when “the parent took off and it accidentally knocked the baby out of the nest,” research ecologist Peter Sharpe, who oversees the bald eagle restoration project in the Channel Islands of California. , told CNN. Sharpe and his team are monitoring 21 nests of bald eagles on the islands this season.

The rescue team arrived Tuesday, and Sharpe and two colleagues used ropes to reach the cub, then made a quick health check before bringing the baby back to its nest.

This is not the first time Sharpe’s job has required him to rescue a baby eagle. Just last week, the ecologist returned another fallen eagle to its nest, he said.

Bald eagles start flying between 10 and 12 weeks old, Sharpe said, and then usually spend a month more with their parents before becoming completely independent. Once they learn to fly, he said, they face threats beyond falling from the nest: cars, power lines, shooting and lead poisoning from catching carcasses shot with lead.

“They are part of a restoration project that has been going on for over 40 years,” he said. “A lot of effort has been put into restoring the eagles. The loss of a chicken in one season can have a pretty big impact. We’re just trying to maximize the number of chickens reaching maturity.”

Sharpe will return to the nest in two to three weeks to put an identifying band on the eagle’s legs, take its measurements and assess its sex, he said.