A bald eaglet has hatched at a nest in Northern Virginia, and it’s likely two others at a nest in Washington have also hatched, experts said.
As a budding celebrity in Washington, the eaglet was captured hatching on video, with live-stream cameras placed close to the nest.
“We are elated,” Terry Hoffman, a spokesman for the Dulles Greenway, said in a statement.
Michael Myers, executive director of the Loudoun Wildlife Conservancy, said in the statement, “We are excited to bring the awe and wonder of these eagles into people’s homes again this year.”
Last year, Rosa and Martin — named by Loudoun County students in honor of Rosa Parks and Martin Luther King Jr. — had an eaglet that was given the name Orion.
Bald eagles usually lay one to three eggs a year, and they hatch usually about 35 days after being incubated. After hatching, baby eaglets usually fledge, or fly away from the nest, in about 10 to 12 weeks.
The Washington area’s other known pair of bald eagles — dubbed Mr. President and Lotus, short for Lady of the United States — set up a second nest last month on the sprawling grounds of the U.S. National Arboretum in Northeast Washington. Their new nest is closer to Langston Golf Course, along the Anacostia River, and about a mile as the eagle flies from their old spot.
It’s a big change for the renowned pair, experts said, but not unheard of.
They’ve seen recent feeding behavior at the arboretum nest of Mr. President and Lotus that suggests that they too have at least one and possibly two eaglets that have hatched, said Sue Greeley, a wildlife manager and arborist at the arboretum.
It’s tough to tell for sure because there are no cameras on their new nest, which is high in a tree. Lotus, they believe, laid her latest round of eggs in early February.
Lotus and Mr. President hatched two eggs last year, though one of the eaglets died.