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When I arrived, the female was preening on the top of a dead melaleuca tree and the male was on the nest. The first 15 minutes or so, I did not see any eaglets. Then, I saw the top of a head and a few minutes later I saw another head. Shortly after that, both eaglets started moving around and I could see both heads clearly. The male just stood there doing nothing until 4:55 when he began ripping at food already in the nest to feed the two chicks. He fed them nonstop (and equally) until 5:10 when he flew to a nearby horizontal branch on an Australian Pine. During that 15 minute feeding period, I searched for any sign of movement on any other part of the nest. Nothing.
The male stayed on the branch for less than 5 minutes and then flew back to the nest. One chick was on the far right side of the nest and the larger one was on the far left side. A couple of minutes after the male returned to the nest another little head popped up in the middle! The male then fed little eaglet #3 constantly for at least 10 minutes. The larger chick on the far left must have had her fill because she just watched and did not try to get any. The one on the right was moderately interested and reached up a few times to grab a bite, but #3 got a lot! The male had to go to some effort by stretching to reach #3 because the little one did not appear to stand up or try to move closer to the adult. Hopefully, after tonight's big meal the little one will get stronger and move around a bit more. As I drove away, I noticed that the female was on top of a dead melaleuca tree.
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