Bird Cams Around the World

More sad news, I'm afraid. We lost the younger of the two remaining chicks today. He/she was quite a bit smaller than #1, but seemed healthy and perky, and seemed to get a reasonable amount of the food - not as much as #1, but no obvious bullying and there seemed to be plenty of food. But this morning he/she didn't get up for early breakfast - s/he popped up briefly, but lay right back down. And s/he looked over briefly during the next two meals, but made no attempt to join. The little one rallied briefly this afternoon, and popped out from under Dad along side the older one - but we didn't see any movement at subsequent feedings.

It's possible that there was something wrong with the chick, which is why it wasn't growing as rapidly as its sibling (though that might also be gender or a variety of other factors); while most of their chicks have thrived, the eagles at this nest did have a chick a few years ago who died after 4-5 days for no obvious reason. It also may be something it ate - the adults do bring in pigeons, which can carry disease, and there was a very dead rat served a few days ago; because #2 was smaller, if there was something less than healthy, he/she might have been more susceptible. It's one of those things that we'll probably never know.