D.C. Eaglecam Nestling Rescued

Wyn Delano
WMAL.com

WASHINGTON — (WMAL) The D.C. Eaglecam, which provides a live online stream of American Eagles nesting at the National Arboretum, had a rare moment of human intervention on Thursday.

Al Cecere, President of the American Eagle Foundation, who operates the website, explains:

“Many people that were viewing the cams were noticing that the larger eaglet had his leg caught in a hole and hung up on some sticks on the railings of the nest…we were hoping that it would free itself.”

But unfortunately, as the hours went by viewers of the Eaglecam from around the world began to realize there was nothing the parents could seem to do that would help.

“In the wild if that eaglet had no access to help by any human…if it couldn’t walk, it would die,” Cecere said.

And while the cams of the nest at the Arboretum are intended to show a nest as it would truly be in the wild, Cecere felt that he couldn’t just leave the baby eagle to the cruelties of nature:

“When you have 10,000 or 100,000 people writing you emails all worrying and crying and upset because they’re having to watch for hours this eaglet torture itself and potentially do severe damage to itself, and we have the ability to go up there and do something to help, we’re going to do something to help,” he said.

To perform the rescue mission, the American Eagle Foundation had to get permission from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife service and had to hire a qualified professional to free the bird.

Around 8PM on Thursday, the cams shut down, and a specialist climbed up the tree to remove the young eagle.

The decision was not made lightly, as there are always concerns of removing young eagles from their nest as their parents can sometimes reject them when they return.

But it was determined that it would be best to take the bird to the Maryland Zoo for a radiograph.

“The leg looked pretty good. It did have an abrasion where it was caught on its leg and it had some swelling on that leg,” Cecere said.

The AEF says the eaglet should be back in the nest before nightfall on Friday.

The eaglet had initially been in the news as part of the annual #NameTheNestlings campaign, where social media users can suggest names for the young birds.

And though that campaign has ended, this avian drama has surely brought even more attention to the project.

Cecere insists that events like this all add to the educational value of the camera program, “It shows people the potential dangers of a wild nest, because this is a wild nest.”

He also stresses that in the future, the eagles may have to take care of themselves:

“We would not necessarily intervene in all situations or difficulties – so we’re leaving the rest of that all up to the eagles. But this eaglet was in dire need and we were able to, so we did.”

You can view a live feed of the entire “First Family” of eagles here.