How do baby bald eagles learn to fly?

0:00SPEAKER_07:This episode is part of the series Wild Critters USA, a collaboration between Orbit PBS Nature and the National Wildlife Federation.

0:12SPEAKER_05:All right, Hank. According to our Wild Critters USA Road Trip Map, we've made it all the way to Alaska. The largest state in the whole United States. And we have a very important delivery to make. Let's see where we're supposed to take this package. It says to Mr. and Mrs. Eagle. Address. Top of giant tree next to beautiful river, middle of Alaskan wilderness. Woo woo! I know that's a pretty unusual address. And wait until you see the package. This thing is humongous.

0:48SPEAKER_05:Hank, look over there. Do you think that's the tree? Woo! Yes, the super tall one. I think that's it. Let's bring Mr. and Mrs. Eagle their package. They're gonna be so excited. Okay, let's grab the box. Gosh, this is so heavy. What is in here? Do you think it's bricks? Or bowling balls? Or a baby elephant? Okay, finally open. Let's look inside. Wait, sticks? Who orders a box of sticks? Do you think they're building a nest? No way. This is enough sticks to build a whole tree house.

1:29SPEAKER_05:Wait, are you telling me that some bald eagles' nests can be bigger than a car? Now I'm really curious. Hey orbiters! Today we're gonna learn about one of North America's most famous wild critters, the bald eagle. You orbiter sent in some fantastic questions.

1:48SPEAKER_11:How do bald eagles hunt? My question is: where do bald eagles build their nests? How can we help bald eagles survive?

2:00SPEAKER_05:And to help us out, we have an awesome eagle expert. Her name is Mrs. Yolgonda, and she's an eagle biologist with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. Welcome to orbit, Miss Yulgonda.

2:11SPEAKER_00:Hi Rob! My name is Yolgonda Dunlavey, and I work for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. It's a federal agency that helps manage plants, fish, and wildlife for the American people. I'm the Eagle Biologist for the Southeastern United States, and I am so excited that I get to talk to you about bald eagles today.

2:32SPEAKER_05:I'm curious, what were you like as a kid?

2:34SPEAKER_00:Uh well, I grew up in Phoenix, Arizona in the desert. So I didn't get to see a whole lot of eagles when I was growing up, but I loved to be outside, and I was a very curious kid. I asked the grown-ups around me lots of questions about the natural world and how things worked, so it makes sense that I grew up to become a scientist.

2:56SPEAKER_05:Ooh, I know a lot of our orbiters ask questions every day, just like you when you were a girl. Speaking of questions, I have one to get us started. I've seen a lot of symbols of the bald eagle in the United States. I've seen bald eagles on some government buildings, on official seals and badges, and even on the back of the quarter in my pocket. Why are bald eagles so important to the United States?

3:20SPEAKER_00:Well, bald eagles are so important in the United States because they became our national symbol. They were first featured on the Great Seal of the United States in 1782. So eagles are kind of like our country's mascot.

3:36SPEAKER_05:A mascot is a symbol that represents a team or a group of people. Just like a sports team might have a tiger or a bear mascot, the bald eagle is kind of like a mascot for the United States.

3:47SPEAKER_00:To many people, bald eagles represent freedom, strength, and independence. Eagles are also very important in Native American communities in our country, symbolizing courage, wisdom, and spirituality. Bald eagles are very important in America, and besides, they're just so cool.

4:06SPEAKER_05:Let's get to this question from Igret.

4:08SPEAKER_03:Hey, Arbeit, my name is Igret Mostajo. I'm 10 years old. I live in Santa Cruz, Bolivia. And my question is: why are these eagles called bald eagles? Thank you, bye.

4:22SPEAKER_05:And hey, Miss Yoganda. I'd also like to know what a bald eagle looks like. Just in case I see one someday, that would be so dreamy.

4:32SPEAKER_00:Hi, Eagret. Bald eagles are large birds of prey. That means that they hunt and eat other animals. The adults have a brown body, white tail feathers, and a white head.

4:46SPEAKER_05:Those white feathers on their head is the reason they're called bald eagles. But the word bald didn't always mean without hair. Like my Uncle Alfred, or that one cat down the street that doesn't have any hair for some reason. Hundreds of years ago, bald could also mean white-headed or marked with white. When people first named the bald eagle, they were talking about its bright white head, not the fact that it doesn't have hair. Isn't that cool?

5:10SPEAKER_00:Their beak is yellow and it's really quite sharp for tearing meat. Their feet are also yellow and they have really long, sharp talons, which are like claws, so they can grab their prey and hold on to it. Like when they swoop down onto a lake and grab a fish. If you stretch your arms out as far as they'll go, I bet you still won't be as long as an eagle's wing, because their wings are about six to eight feet long.

5:38SPEAKER_05:Six to eight feet as taller than most full-grown people. So these are really big birds. Something else that's really cool that Mrs. Yolgonda told me is that the female bald eagles are bigger than the male bald eagles. Hey, Mrs. Yoganda, where do bald eagles live?

5:54SPEAKER_00:Well, Rob, bald eagles live everywhere in North America, from Canada all the way down to northern Mexico.

6:03SPEAKER_07:My name is Axel. What do bald eagles eat?

6:11SPEAKER_00:Thank you, bye. Hi, Axel. Eagles like to eat just about anything that's easy to grab, but they really prefer fish.

6:21SPEAKER_11:And my name is Alina, Living, California, and my question is, how do bald eagles hunt?

6:28SPEAKER_10:By orbit, I love the podcast. Hi, my name is Natalie. I am from Mexico. I want to know how bald eagles hunt. Goodbye.

6:44SPEAKER_00:They catch fish by using their strong legs and talons. They will see a fish from really high up and swoop down to the water, put their feet down and grab the fish right out of the water. Sometimes they'll look for roadkill or animals that die near a road, like a deer or a possum. That's because they're what we like to call an opportunistic scavenger. That means that they will always look for an easy meal.

7:12SPEAKER_05:Ooh, orbiters. There's a cool word in there. The word is scavenger. Wanna say that with me? On the count of three. One, two, three. Scavenger. A scavenger is an animal that looks for food that is already dead instead of hunting it themselves. Bald eagles do a little bit of both. Hey orbiters. Something else that Mrs. Yolganda told me is that the bald eagle used to be an endangered species. We're gonna learn more about their incredible comeback in a little bit.

7:40SPEAKER_05:But we received this question from Olivia Rose that I think is super important.

7:44SPEAKER_08:Hi, my name is Olivia Rose. I am seven years old. I live in Kailuma, California, and my question is what is an endangered species? And how can we help them? Thank you.

7:56SPEAKER_05:We brought this question to our friend David Miziduski. Mr. David is a science advisor for Ranger Rick magazine from the National Wildlife Federation and is helping us out with this wild critter series. Hey, Mr. David, can you help me and Olivia Rose understand what's an endangered species?

8:11SPEAKER_01:That's such an important question, Olivia Rose. Endangered species are plants or animals that are disappearing and are in danger of going extinct forever. Species become endangered when they've lost their habitat or their food source or because of overhunting, pollution, disease, or climate change. Unfortunately, human activity is the main reason species are becoming endangered today. And that's why it's so important for us to help save them. The great news is that there are some species, like the bald eagle, the American alligator, and the peregrine falcon that were protected under the Endangered Species Act, and now they're no longer in danger.

8:46SPEAKER_01:But there are many others that are still in trouble, like red wolves, California condors, Florida Panthers, and manatees that still need our help.

8:54SPEAKER_05:And parents, if you'd like to continue learning about protecting endangered species, Rangerick magazine has great resources for our families. I'll leave a link in the show notes. Okay, Caleb and I want to learn about flying.

9:07SPEAKER_06:Hello, my name is Caleb. I remember to I know why. My question is, how far can bone eagles fly?

9:15SPEAKER_00:Orbiters, I don't know about you, but I think flying is so cool.

9:21SPEAKER_05:Everyone who thinks flying is cool, raise both your hands. Oh, sorry, Hank. Raise both your hands or one of your paws.

9:29SPEAKER_00:I wish I could fly like an eagle because eagles are excellent flyers. They can sometimes fly over a hundred miles during migration.

9:37SPEAKER_05:If you were driving a car, it would take you about two hours driving on a highway to reach 100 miles.

9:43SPEAKER_00:That's when they're going from one place to another for food or to find mates. They can fly as high as 10,000 feet. But they'll usually fly around 1 to 2,000 feet above the ground. And they can fly around 30 to 40 miles an hour.

9:58SPEAKER_05:Orbiters. Mrs. Yulganda said something that I think is totally wacko, insane, amazing. She said bald eagles can fly as high as 10,000 feet. That's more than three kilometers. Here's some ways to imagine 10,000 feet. Imagine 10 skyscrapers stacked on top of each other, or as high as the fluffy cumulus clouds that you see in the sky. Or if you could walk straight into the air, it would take you more than 30 minutes to reach 10,000 feet. Isn't that crazy?

10:28SPEAKER_02:Hi Urbanis, it's me, Sam. I live in Newfoundland, New Jersey. I'm seven years old, and my question is, I know they have super good eyesight, but exactly how far can they see? Could they see my sandwich from all the way up in the clouds if I'm having a picnic at the park? Thank you. Bye.

10:50SPEAKER_00:Howdy, Sam, that is such a good question. There's a great saying when you can see really well, it's called having an eagle eye. The reason they say this is because bald eagles have super duper eyesight. Their eyesight has to be really good so they can find prey or food and so they can defend their territory. In fact, eagles have some of the best eyesight of any animal anywhere. Eagles can see four to eight times better than what a human can see.

11:21SPEAKER_05:Here's something families could do together. Choose an object like a cool book cover or a piece of art and put it four feet or about one meter away. See how many details you can see. Probably a lot. Then move the object to the other side of the room, about 20 feet or 7 meters away. How many details can you see now? If you were a bald eagle, you could see all the details, even though it's far away now, and probably a lot more details, especially if it's a painting of a mouse or a fish.

11:49SPEAKER_05:You can pause here if you'd like, or I'll put the instructions in the show notes so that you can do it after you finish the episode. Hey, Mrs. Yolganda, what about Sam's picnic sandwich?

11:58SPEAKER_00:So, yeah, I bet an eagle could even see your sandwich from way up in the clouds if you were having a picnic in the park.

12:07SPEAKER_05:Hey orbiters, we're about to learn about the incredible bald eagle nests. They are so cool. But first, let's pause for a mystery sound. You can move around and wiggle while you listen and think about what the sound is. Here's a hint in the form of a riddle. I punch the ground but have no fists. What am I? Stick around to the end for the answer. Okay, let's start learning about bald eagle nests.

12:38SPEAKER_11:Hello, my name is Josh, and I'm four years old and I love from distant actions. My question is where do bald eagles build their nests?

12:48SPEAKER_00:Hi Josh! Bald eagles like to build their nest in tall trees. They usually pick the tallest tree that has an open crown. That's the top of the tree, so they can get in and out of their nest easier. If there aren't many tall trees around though, sometimes eagles will nest on tall structures like cell phone towers. Their nests weigh a lot, so it must be strong and sturdy. They will usually build their nests close to water, so it's easy for them to get food.

13:18SPEAKER_00:But they build their nests using branches and sticks from nearby trees and bushes.

13:23SPEAKER_05:And do mommy and daddy bald eagles work together on the nests, Mrs. Yolganda?

13:27SPEAKER_00:Both the male and the female will bring sticks to the nest and they will weave them on top of each other, forming what kind of looks like a bowl. They will add moss and grass to the middle to make sure it's soft and it makes the perfect spot to lay eggs.

13:41SPEAKER_05:Mrs. Yolganda told me something really cool. Bald eagles don't ever throw anything away. It would be kind of like if your room got messy, but instead of cleaning it up, you just kept bringing new toys and clothes and threw them on the ground. Woo! No, Hank, orbiters are not like bald eagles. I bet we all have very clean rooms.

13:59SPEAKER_00:They keep adding sticks to it every year. And some eagles will use a nest for a long time, up to 20 years or more. So you can see how it gets to be so big and heavy.

14:10SPEAKER_05:Mrs. Yoganda told me one nest in Florida got so big it was 20 feet deep, which is as tall as three basketball players standing on top of each other's heads. And it weighed as much as a pickup truck. Hey, Mrs. Yoganda. So they have these really huge, super messy nests. Remy and I have a question about the eggs that go into those nests.

14:32SPEAKER_07:My name's Remy. I'm seven years old. I live in Miami, Florida. My question is, how do eagles make eggs? How do the baby eagles get inside? And how d do eagles make baby eagles?

14:53SPEAKER_00:Hi, Remy. Such a great question. You know, it actually takes a lot of work for the female bald eagle to make an egg. The process takes her about 10 to 12 days to form an egg. First, she makes a yolk, but it's not like a chicken egg yolk, it's microscopic.

15:11SPEAKER_05:The itsy bitsy yolk is inside the mama eagle until one day it gets fertilized. Fertilized is a science word that means that a tiny egg cell from the mother joins with a sperm cell from the father. Once that happens, a baby eagle can begin to grow. Okay, now let's follow the fertilized egg.

15:31SPEAKER_00:Then it continues moving down, collecting layers of proteins that are called albumin or egg whites. Think of these like the protection or soft pillows protecting the fertilized yolk. After this, calcium from the female eagle's own bones is used to help form the hard outer shell of the egg, and that's what keeps everything inside safe.

15:54SPEAKER_05:Isn't that amazing, orbiters? So when you see a bald eagle's egg in a nest, or any bird egg, like a chicken egg, now you know that the mother bird uses calcium from her body to help build that hard eggshell. Nature is so amazing.

16:09SPEAKER_00:Inside the fertilized yolk forms a baby eagle, and after the female lays the egg, the eaglet grows for about thirty-five days until it's ready to hatch. Now she does this another two to three times during the breeding season. That's a lot of work.

16:25SPEAKER_05:You're right. That does sound like hard work. Hey, Mrs. Yoganda, what happens at the end of the 35 days?

16:32SPEAKER_00:Well, both the male and the female adult bald eagles will take turns incubating the eggs, which means that they keep the eggs warm for about 35 days. They keep them warm by staying on top of the eggs, only getting up to switch places with the other adult.

16:47SPEAKER_05:Did you hear the word incubation orbiters? We learned about that in an episode about alligators. Incubation means keeping the eggs warm while the babies develop inside. Mama alligators use the heat from decomposing plants to incubate their eggs, while eagle moms and dads sit gently on the eggs and use their body heat to incubate the eggs.

17:07SPEAKER_00:It's a full-time job. In around 35 days, the eggs will start to hatch. The little eaglet will use something called an egg tooth, but this is a sharp point on their beak that the eaglet uses to create a small opening in the egg called a pip. And from there they use that small opening to break open the egg and wiggle out and greet the world.

17:30SPEAKER_05:Wow. Okay, so now we have a baby eagle, which is called an eaglet. What do the eaglets look like?

17:37SPEAKER_00:Well, newly hatched eaglets are covered in soft, light gray down, which is a soft, fluffy type of feather. Actual feathers begin to appear around day 24. In fact, the young eaglets cannot keep themselves warm for about the first two weeks, so they really need mom and dad to stay close by.

17:57SPEAKER_05:I bet that's some high-quality family time with mom and dad. Hey, Mrs. Yoganda, when did they start to fly?

18:03SPEAKER_00:The eaglets grow up super fast and are ready to fly on their own in about 12 weeks. They get ready to fly by doing something called branching. This is where they go out on a branch and they flap their wings really hard so they can get their flight muscles ready. One day, they can fly all by themselves.

18:23SPEAKER_05:Sounds kind of like my little brother when he was learning how to walk and he kept falling down on his diaper. So now they look like the famous bald eagle?

18:31SPEAKER_00:They don't look like an eagle though, not just yet. They're covered in feathers, but it's mostly brown feathers. They don't look like a bald eagle until they're closer to five years old. But once they learn to fly, they're now called fledglings.

18:46SPEAKER_05:Hey, Mrs.

18:47SPEAKER_00:Yoganda, what happens next? Well, the fledglings will stay in the area around their nest, called their territory, and will learn how to fly and hunt for themselves for about one to three months. Mom and dad are very good teachers, so they help the young fledglings learn how to take care of themselves.

19:05SPEAKER_05:Wow. So they're ready to go out on their own in just a few months? That would be like a human baby saying, Thanks for the help, Mom, but I think I'm ready to go get a job and drive a car and live on my own now.

19:16SPEAKER_00:After fledging, for the first four to five years, some eagles, but not all, will migrate or wander the landscape. As the eagles get older, their feathers change from brown and white speckles to them slowly forming the fully white head and white tail around five years old. That's the age when they begin nest building and finding a mate on their own.

19:38SPEAKER_05:Isn't that special orbiters? Mrs. Yoganda has helped us understand how an incredible animal like the bald eagle grows from the moment that it starts as a little yolk inside of its mother until it is full grown. Along the way, it breaks out of its egg using a pick, is cared for by its mommy and daddy, takes its first flaps while branching, learns how to fly as a fledgling, and within a few months flies away to start its own family. Every single one of the majestic, full-grown bald eagles with the white head and tail feathers goes through this incredible evolution.

20:12SPEAKER_05:Next time you see a bald eagle, imagine what it looked like as a fluffy little eaglet just coming out of its egg. Hey, remember how we talked about endangered species earlier? We got a question from our friend Crystal Ball about this.

20:27SPEAKER_04:Hi Orbit, my name is Kristalan. I live in Panama City. I'm six years old, and my question is, what what make the bald eagle get in danger of extinction?

20:39SPEAKER_00:Hi, Crystal Ball. It's such a great question. One of the biggest threats to bald eagles before they were listed under the Endangered Species Act in 1973 was the widespread use of a pesticide, DDT. It's a synthetic insecticide. That's a fancy name for bug spray, but it was widely used in the U.S. And by the 1960s, bald eagle populations dropped so low that there were less than a thousand eagles were nesting.

21:10SPEAKER_05:Wait a second.

21:11SPEAKER_00:I thought bug sprays were for bugs, not for eagles. That's because DDT caused the eggshells to be very thin and they couldn't hatch any eaglets.

21:21SPEAKER_05:Okay, orbiters, this was kind of confusing for me. So here's what happened. Farmers were frustrated because insects were eating their tomatoes, corn, and spinach. So they used a bug spray called DDT that kills insects before they can eat the plants. But here's the thing: the bug spray didn't stay on only the insects. Some bug spray got into the water, and some insects were eaten by fish, and then bigger fish ate those fish. And then bald eagles ate the big fish.

21:49SPEAKER_05:And little by little, that bug spray moved through the food chain and built up inside the eagle's bodies. Scientists discovered that this made the eagle eggshells very thin and weak. So many baby eaglets couldn't hatch. That meant fewer and fewer bald eagles were being born. Mrs. Yolganda told me that this bug spray was banned from use in 1972. And slowly but surely, eagles started having healthy eggs again.

22:14SPEAKER_00:And now we estimate that there are over 316,000 individual bald eagles here in the U.S. It's one of the greatest conservation success stories in our country. And the bald eagle was actually removed from the endangered species list, or it was delisted in 2007.

22:33SPEAKER_05:Everybody joined Hick and Me doing a happy dance for the bald eagles.

22:37SPEAKER_00:There are still issues facing eagles like poisons called anti-coagulants and other things that can hurt eagles like power lines or wind turbines. But if we keep working together and continue to manage bald eagles, we can keep their populations healthy and thriving.

22:54SPEAKER_05:We'll learn more about how we can help bald eagles in a moment. But first, let's take a quick wiggle break. Today, I'd like you to pretend like you're a fledgling bald eagle, flapping its wings and trying to learn how to fly. And if it's your second or third time listening to the episode, you can instead be a full-grown bald eagle soaring through the clouds. And while we're flapping our wings, let's recap what we've learned. Bald eagles are powerful birds of prey that use incredible eyesight, sharp talons, and strong beaks to hunt and survive.

23:23SPEAKER_05:We learned that they are the national symbol of the United States, and they build enormous nests that they can use for many years. We also followed the journey of a bald eagle from a tiny egg to a fluffy eaglet to a young fledgling learning to fly, and finally to a full-grown adult. And we learned that bald eagles were once endangered because pesticides made their eggs weak, but bald eagles have recovered, thanks to people working together to protect them and their habitats.

23:54SPEAKER_12:Hi, my name is Kenji. I'm calling from Pasadena, California, and my question is how's it like to study and protect bald eagles?

24:06SPEAKER_00:You know, I have really enjoyed my time working with eagles. They're just so special and they mean so much to so many people. I try to make sure that there's balance between saving eagles and helping people when they need to do things near their nest. So this is the true heart of conservation biology. It's working with people to achieve good things for eagles and other wildlife.

24:31SPEAKER_09:Hi, my name is Luna. I'm six years old and I live in New York, and my question is how can we help mold eagles survive?

24:45SPEAKER_11:Hello, I am Lise Mario. I am Five. And my question is, how can we protect about eagles?

24:54SPEAKER_00:Hey orbiters, this is one of my favorite questions. There's just so much that we can all do every day for eagles and other birds. Always throw away your trash, especially your fishing line. Eagles and other birds can get tangled up in fishing line and get hurt. It's also important to be extra careful anytime you must use rat poison because it can make eagles and other raptors very sick if they eat a rat or a mouse that has been poisoned. One other idea we can all plant more trees.

25:26SPEAKER_00:Bald eagles need big, healthy trees to nest in. So if we all plant more trees, that will help bald eagles have somewhere to nest when they grow up.

25:34SPEAKER_05:I just love trees. Don't you orbiters? Sometimes I like to just sit outside with my family and Hank and listen to the birds chirping and looking at trees. Hank is usually looking for squirrels. Hey, Mrs. Yoganda, thanks so much for joining us on orbit today.

25:48SPEAKER_00:Rob, I had so much fun talking about eagles today, and I hope you enjoyed learning about them. I also hope that you and all of your listeners get to go outside and look for birds all around you whenever you can. Maybe if you're lucky, you'll get to see a bald eagle. Have fun and stay safe out there. Happy exploring. Bye.

26:11SPEAKER_05:Hey parents, our guest today was Yolganda Dunlavey, an eagle biologist from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. We'll leave information about the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service in the show notes. And hey, before we wrap up, I bet a few of you are curious about the Mystery Sound. Do you remember it? If you said it's a jackhammer, you were right. Way to go. This episode is part of the Wild Critter series, a collaboration with our friends at PBS Nature and the National Wildlife Federation.

26:42SPEAKER_05:Orbit is produced by Coombrae Kids. This episode was written by me, Robert Carpenter. The producer is Hadrow and Rihanna. Artwork for the episode by Moises Monsalve and Jorge Uick. And parents, if you enjoyed this episode, can you think of any friends who you could share it with? Recommendations from parents like you are the number one way that families learn about orbit. Alright, we'll see you in the next episode, orbiters. Ciao.

27:05SPEAKER_12:The important thing is not to stop questioning. Albert Einstein did