It is not uncommon for young siblings to bash each other on the head and a moment later embrace in a tender hug.
That’s sort of what happened last week between two fledgling bald eagles awkwardly attempting wing flaps at a nest site at the U.S. Steel Mon Valley Works-Irvin Plant in West Mifflin.
Following a push, a precipitous fall and rescue with the help of a sibling, one of the fledglings has been permanently removed from the nest for veterinary care and recovery.
In their third successful year of mating, the 7- to 8-year-old eagle dad and older mom have watched their pair of nestlings grow from fuzzy balls of feathers to juveniles nearly the size of an adult – black in color, perpetually hungry and squabbling for nest-bowl dominance.
Bald eagle fans from around the world have watched them, too, via a live-streaming camera system supplied by PixCams, the Westmoreland County security monitoring company that built the equipment used to observe another eagle nest, in the Hays neighborhood of Pittsburgh.
A week ago today, as the young birds perched on a limb of the sycamore that holds their nest high above the Monongahela River, one fledgling flapped its wings, knocking the other off the limb. It tumbled 15 feet to another branch as steel plant manager Don German watched on the live-stream feed at his desk.
“The one that was practicing flying is a little more developed than the other,” he said. “It glided off camera when [the weaker bird] fell.”
Mr. German and the other webcam controllers panned the area searching for the lost eagle. When they noticed its sibling perched on a branch and intently watching one area, they focused their attention there.
“Monday morning, we’re looking and all of a sudden part of a wing sort of comes into view,” he said. “It’s sitting there right under the camera. You could see its wing feathers were all messed up and most of its tail feathers were gone. It got damaged in the fall or on the ground.”
As the healthy sibling watched from its perch about 100 feet from the nest, the injured bird tried to hop up to the next branch and failed. It tried again. Three times it attempted to work its way back to the nest. Throughout the fledgling’s ordeal, the parents didn’t call out or attempt to help, which is common among raptors.
“It was kind of sad watching it,” Mr. German said. “It kept falling back. It couldn’t fly. We reached out to an animal rehab facility and called the Game Commission.”
Monday evening, Mr. German followed Denton Schellhammer, a state game warden, into the dense undergrowth to try to retrieve the bird. While they were directly below it, the eagle jumped off the branch. It careened about 50 feet down a steep embankment, followed by Mr. German and Mr. Schellhammer, who clung to vines, slid and rolled to the bottom.
“We went all through there. It was so dense, we looked for 1 ½ hours and couldn’t find it,” said the steel plant manager.
“Back on the top we saw the juvie still in a tree,” he said. “Denton said to get on the other side of it and he’d flush it toward me. When [Mr. Schellhammer] came walking in, its wings started flapping and it tried to fly. He grabbed one talon and tried to push it toward me, but it whacked him in the head.”
Mr. Schellhammer held on, though, professionally folding one wing under the other and carrying the bird out of the forest like a football.
“If it wasn’t for the camera and the sibling directing us to the lost bird, we’d have never found it,” Mr. German said.
On close inspection it was clear the eagle’s left wing and tail were seriously damaged. Mr. German noted the injuries could have been far worse. The bird was placed in an animal carrier and taken to the rehab center. A representative asked that the facility’s name be withheld to avoid attracting crowds.
According to the center, the eagle weighs 8.8 pounds. That fact and the remaining tail feather suggested to the rehab staff that it’s a male. Full recovery will take about a year.
Mr. German said he was told the bird won’t be returned to its steel mill nest site. It will likely be released at a distant location, where it will have to learn to hunt. Expected to gain liberty while still an immature adult, it will be 3 ½ years old before it sprouts the distinctive white head of a mature bald eagle, finds a lifelong partner and explores its freedom somewhere over America.
John Hayes: jhayes@post-gazette.com.
First Published: July 3, 2022, 10:00 a.m.