2 dads, 1 mom: Bald eagles raising 3 young in rare single nest and you can watch

Skywatcher · April 16, 2019, 4:17pm

USA Today

The two males, Valor I and Valor II, assist the female, Starr, “in nest maintenance, incubation and raising the young” in Illinois near the Mississippi River, according to the Stewards of the Upper Mississippi River Refuge.

The family is nontraditional, but established after a history of death and drama.

They eagles have been documented as nesting together since 2017. Starr laid her first eggs in September 2018 with support of the two males. Both eggs hatched, and one of the eaglets successfully fledged, or left the nest. The other fledgling died from unknown causes.

The history of how these birds became a feathered family is a soap opera of sorts.

Here’s a fun fact — the two dads were a family unit first. Because before there was Starr, there was the female Hope. But Hope was injured by other birds in March 2017 and never returned to the nest. That just left Valor I and Valor II, who had shared a nest with Hope.

Slash1972 · April 16, 2019, 6:26pm

Any idea how the second male knew the first male was a bad father and just decided to swoop in?

FloatyGimpy · April 16, 2019, 8:10pm

Awesome - thanks for sharing!

Two_Many_Cats · April 16, 2019, 10:30pm

And Tango Makes Four???

purplehorseshoe · April 17, 2019, 3:43pm

This kinda thing must make exploding heads out of some of the anti gay marriage evangelicals out there. And featuring the patriotic symbol of 'Murrica, to boot.

Best wishes and lots of fish to the happy family. Mazel tov.

Slash1972 · April 17, 2019, 3:50pm

Why, did the two male eagles get married?

Broomstick · April 17, 2019, 8:13pm

Yes. The prior female disappeared and the two males remained at the nest. The current female showed up and took up parenting with the two males in residence.

Eagles don’t get “married” in the sense people do, but it’s clear the two males were buddies and living together prior to the current female’s arrival. Given that outside of raising chicks eagles, like most raptors, live pretty solitary lives that probably qualifies as “mated” in most peoples’ views.

Skywatcher · April 18, 2019, 11:47pm

Seems their server is having storage trouble. Need to visit the refuge’s channel to get the current live feed.

not_what_you_d_expect · April 18, 2019, 11:51pm

I saw it mentioned on the national news last night, but I had already seen it here first! SDMB beats the news again. I like when that happens.

Helena330 · April 19, 2019, 12:17am

I’m not quite sure what I’m watching is live, but I’m still enjoying it. Eagle nests seem to be a lot flatter than the nests of smaller birds.

I like hearing the train whistles in the distance. My DH’s mom lived about an hour directly south of that area and not too far from the train tracks. I spent a lot of time there so the whistles are quite familiar! They bring back good memories.

Thank you,** Skywatcher**.

Slash1972 · April 19, 2019, 12:14pm

That article says both the male eagles are mating with the female. So, I still don’t see why anti gay marriage evangelicals’ heads would be exploding. Seems like a reverse “Three’s Company” scenario to me, with the added bonus that both the males get to “mate” with the female.

purplehorseshoe · April 19, 2019, 2:24pm

Cuz marriage to those folks is “one woman, one man” and a menage a trois is frowned upon?

Q: eagles typically lay 2 eggs. Is there a good chance of each male fathering one of them?

purplehorseshoe · April 19, 2019, 10:34pm

Didn’t finish my train of thought with that question, sorry. I’m familiar with how unlikely the 2nd, younger hatchling is to survive in most cases; many birds of prey have “an heir & a spare” with a younger chick in place should something happen to the 1st egg.

In cases like this with more genetic variations (half siblings instead of full) I wondered if that increased the 2nd chick’s odds of survival for any reason.