Surf ‘n’ birds: Eagle family snapped on the shore

| West Seattle beaches | Wildlife

(click to see a larger version)
You see them soaring overhead – or sometimes perched in a tree or on a piling – but this is a somewhat unusual view of West Seattle bald eagles, courtesy of Susan Grossman of Singing Pixel Photography. She writes:

I was very excited to watch this eagle family interact on the Duwamish Head end of Alki this morning. While the bird in the foreground is gigantic, it seems to be a half-fledged chick. It was running along the beach on and off for a good half hour, flapping its wings and crying piteously and hopping into the air and crashing back down, while Mom sat on the pontoon with what looks like an older or better-developed sibling and watched. Eventually Mom and sibling came back to the chick. Mom seemed conflicted; the youngster would crouch and flap his wings and peep yearningly at her exactly like a begging sparrow chick, and Mom would move toward him and stretch her head toward him, then jerk away. Eventually Mom flew back to the pontoon and Sibling stayed on the beach with the youngster, huddling with him and grooming him in what looked like a comforting way, and watching while he found some fish and excitedly ate it. Eventually Youngster made it into the air and Mom joined him and the family soared off.

I don’t know much about eagle behavior, but it looks like the chick, which is monstrously huge but a baby nonetheless, is at that stage where the parent starts being impelled to start withdrawing parental care. But everyone in the group looked miserable and conflicted. Do eagles live in multi-age groups? The sleeker young eagle definitely seems better-developed and looks older, but he or she also clearly had a strong bond with the ruffled youngster.

d July 17, 2008 (10:05 pm)

How cool!

I think, and I invite lurking authorities on this to speak up and correct me here, that two youngsters are common for eagles. It is possible, if not likely, that both are the same age and that the larger is a female. The birds are more gray when first born and by the time they fledge (12 weeks) they are darker brown. They remain darker brown, gaining some white mottling underneath just their wings, I think, until they obtain the white head at four or five years.

Really terrific picture. Thanks for sharing that!

Susan July 17, 2008 (10:30 pm)

Thanks for the information! I read that some 50% of eaglets don’t make it through their first winter if they don’t learn to hunt, so I had a vague assumption that the parents teach them for quite some time…but it was very cool to watch eagle education actually going on.

Eilene Hutchinson July 17, 2008 (11:00 pm)

Thank you for sharing that wonderful photo and interesting information! Wildlife is certainly fascinating, and it was great to have a “window” on their activities.

Rick July 18, 2008 (7:46 am)

Red headed stepchild, maybe?

susieq July 21, 2008 (5:02 pm)

Susan – Thanks for posting this fabulous photo! A bit of natural history -bald eagles are like many other birds of prey in that they lay eggs over a period of several days. The eggs then hatch “asynchronously,” over several days, taking 34-36 days to hatch. If food is limited, the smallest, last chick to hatch often starves to death. The oldest, largest golden eagle chick often kills and eats its sibling! The great photo and story you reported sound like a success story for our bald eagles – all the more reason for each of us to work to reduce runoff and pollution into our Sound! To learn more, Seattle Audubon has some great books available, and watch this fall for a West Seattle-wide effort to gain certification as a Backyard Habitat!

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