Bald eagle nests come in various shapes and sizes, and one nest in Vancouver is beginning to resemble a high-rise.
“Look at mama bald eagle at the top of this nest – one of the biggest I’ve seen!” Pacificnorthwestkate tweeted on Tuesday. “Every year more sticks get added.”
To be sure, the eagle family Kate has observed is moving up. She told FTW Outdoors that the nest measures about 15 feet tall “and it’s getting bigger every year.”
Look at mama bald eagle at the top of this nest – one of the biggest I’ve seen! Every year more sticks get added 😄👍 Tuesday 14 March 2023 pic.twitter.com/4vwQDWSKBS
— Pacificnorthwestkate (@pnwkate) March 15, 2023
According to the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, the largest bald eagle nest on record, in St. Petersburg, Fla., was 20 feet tall and 10 feet in diameter.
The Lab’s All About Birds website states that a nest in Vermilion, Ohio, was famous for being shaped like a wine glass. It weighed nearly two metric tons and was used for 34 years “until the tree blew down.”
In 2021, the Forest Park Nature Center in Illinois shared an image showing a ranger sitting inside a scale-model of a typical nest, measuring 5 feet wide and 3 feet deep.
The image revealed how an ordinary bald eagle nest would look if it were not partially hidden by branches. (The replica nest is housed at Hueston Woods State Park in Ohio.)
A nest that I’ve been observing, in east San Diego County, is of the typical variety and has been used for years by the same bald eagle pair.
I’ve included two recent images – one showing an adult eagle guarding the nest from the treetop, and another showing a newly hatched chick next to a watchful parent.
The ungainly youngster revealed its fuzzy head Sunday as I was about to leave my observation point.
Bald eagle chicks fledge after 10-12 weeks. After they fledge, immature bald eagles can travel great distances in search of a preferred territory.
From All About Birds: “Immature bald eagles spend the first four years of their lives in nomadic exploration of vast territories and can fly hundreds of miles per day.
“Some young birds from Florida have wandered north as far as Michigan, and birds from California have reached Alaska.”
Bald eagle attain their classic regal appearance, with white crowns and tail feathers, after about five years.
