Re: Thursday a day of flight practice...

Posted by NewMexiKen on
URL: http://bald-eagles-of-broward-county-florida.17.s1.nabble.com/Thursday-a-day-of-flight-practice-tp2692152p2710190.html

Thanks, Trisha, for that great report. We feel almost as if we are still there. How great it would have been to see the interactive flights of the siblings. Your description of the plumage and profile differences between the siblings is very interesting. Justice's breast seems to have been darker overall from the beginning. We have noticed that the adult female does appear more "ruffled" and has a more prominent bulge in her lower abdominal area. That and the thicker base to her bill, that makes it look stubbier than the narrow bill of the male, along with her larger size, are often quite distinctive. I should say that Ed took fairly comparable photos of both adults so that I could calculate their ratios of bill length to width at base, but I found that both of his female shots had the lesser ratio (thicker base), but so did one of the two male photos! Maybe the photos were not exactly at the same angle, or maybe our eyes are better at noticing the subtle difference. To me, the male's forehead seems more in line with the top of the bill than the female's which gives her the look of having more of a "forehead." We'll have to see if this is a useful distinction-- maybe next year!

It will be very interesting to know at what point the adults stop bringing food to the nest, and also when the young birds stop coming to the nest at night. Once all the information is in, I plan to edit the PowerPoint slides and add narrative information to describe the entire life cycle from nest building to departure of the family.

Best wishes to everyone! We are very busy helping our daughter and family as they are having construction in their home. Mostly minding the two granddaughters-- labor of love!

Carina, Soon to be four years old:



Graciela, just turned five: