It’s a boy! Or a girl! Actually, no one knows yet, because it’s high in a pine tree and guarded by its mother.
Berry’s new eaglet was born 8:27 a.m Wednesday to the college’s resident eagle couple. The Berry nest is the first documented nest in the modern history of Floyd County, according to the school’s website.
The eaglet is called B14. Even when they know if it’s a boy or girl, the college says it won’t give it a name because “they are wild creatures and we do not want to personalize them.”
You can observe the eagle family via Berry’s Eagle Cams — View 1 and View 2 — which are on 24/7. They are equipped with infrared so you can even watch at night.
The cameras even recorded little B14 having breakfast this morning.
If you’re wondering which adult eagle is mama and which is papa, the male is smaller and has a sleek white head. The female is larger with a head of ruffled white feathers.
“The female eagle is not the original female who has been on our campus since 2012 producing a number of successful eaglets,” Berry’s director of public relations, Chris Kozelle, said in an email. “She has an injured foot and was replaced by a younger female eagle. She was last seen in December near Lake Guntersville, Ala., where we like to believe she has retired.”
However, she added, “Our eagle experts believe the male is the same resident male eagle.”
This isn’t the first eaglet to call the college its birthplace. According to Berry:
In 2013: Two eggs hatched (B1 and B2.) B1 fledged on April 22 and B2 fledged on April 28.
In 2014: Two eggs were laid, but only one (B3) hatched on Feb. 22. B3 fledged on May 22, 2014.
In 2015: Eggs were laid on Jan. 6 and 9 with hatching on Feb. 13 and 15. B4 fledged on May 10, 2014, and B5 fledged on May 12, 2015.
In 2016: Eggs were laid Jan. 7 and 10 and hatched Feb. 14 and 15. B6 and B7 fledged May 8 and 9, 2016.
In 2017: Eggs were laid Jan. 3 and 7 and hatched Feb. 11 and 13. B8 and B9 fledged on May 5, 2017 and May 10, 2017.
In 2018: Eggs were laid Jan. 3 and 6 and hatched Feb. 12 and 13. On Feb. 22, 2018, one of the two eaglets wandered over to the edge of the nest and fell out of the 100-foot-tall pine tree. It did not survive the fall. The remaining eaglet fledged on May 9.
In 2019: Eggs were laid Jan. 8 and 11 and hatched Feb. 19 and 21. The eaglets died shortly thereafter. No cause was determined.
In 2020: Eggs were laid Jan. 11 and 13. Neither egg hatched.
Note: This story has been updated to reflect the mother is not the same eagle or first appeared on campus in 2012.
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