West End🦅And Then There Were THREE🐥🐥🐥Thunder Feeds Triplets🐠Bonking⚔Explore.org 2024-03-12

Courtesy of ‪@instituteforwildlifestudies‬ and ‪@ExploreLiveNatureCams‬ https://www.iws.org/iws-chat/

For information about patagial tags (wing blings), how they came to be, and why they are important please watch this video - Return Flight: Restoring the Bald Eagle to the Channel Islands    • Return Flight: Restoring the Bald Eagle to...  

WE3 hatched by 04:10, the chick is still a bit tired and weak. They may need a bit more time to be able to hold the head up consistently.

WE1 is being quite aggressive with WE2 and WE3. Hopefully this aggression will taper off soon: this nest has raised triplets many times. Historically, singling rivalry on this nest has been quite low.

Bonking or Sibling rivalry is a behavior that can be frequently observed in bald eagles and other birds. It serves to establish the pecking (feeding) order and hierarchy within the brood. More dominant eaglets tend to eat first, while smaller ones wait for their turn or invent other ways to get fed: walk around and use parents as a barrier, take advantage of “tandem” feedings and “private” feedings while older chicks are in food comas.

It appears that stress is one of the main drivers of the behavior. When food is plentiful, brooding and parental nest attendance is high, and there are no other external stressors (presence of predators, warning calls from parents), sibling rivalry is often reduced to totally harmless (and sometimes entertaining) bonking.

🐥WE1 hatched 3/9 by 03:00, WE1 hatched 3/9 by 19:00, WE3 hatched 3/12 by 04:10.
🥚Egg1 laid on 1/30 15:39, Egg2 and Egg3 were laid while the cam was offline.

Resident male since 2019: A-61 Akecheta, hatched in 2016 in the Los Pinos territory, Santa Cruz Island. Parents: A-51 and A-45
Resident female since 2013: K-91 Thunder, hatched in 2009 in the Two Harbors territory, Santa Catalina Island. Parents: K-82 Cholyn and K-81 Chase.
The original historic nest has been in continued use since 1991 (although first eagle nesting sightings go back to 1920s). The new alt nest was first used in 2023.

Nest info: https://www.iws.org/west-end-nest-his...

The story of Akecheta in pictures:   / 2931832933551570