The viral bald eagle nest that is home to Bella and Scout has been the focus of nature and eagle enthusiasts for over a month now since their three eggs were expected to hatch this week!
The good news is that the first of the three eggs has already hatched!
When did the first baby bald eagle hatch?
The first egg had its first pip at around 7 am on March 20th and eventually broke free of its egg and completely hatched at arounda 3:56 pm locl time that same day!
Typically, once an egg has its first pip, which is when the chick (or eaglet, in this case) first cracks or punctures the eggshell, the eaglet will take between 24 and 48 hours to hatch fully.
Given that it took less than 12 hours to hatch, it’s safe to say that Scout and Bella’s first eaglet of the season was very excited to meet their mom and dad!
Is the baby bald eagle healthy?
As of right now, we can only speculate as to the baby eaglet’s health, but it seemed to be moving and healthy in the first few hours after it hatched.
However, given that the baby’s been covered and shielded by its mama, Bella, we haven’t had a chance to take a long look and know for certain.
That being said, this is a wild bald eagle nest, which means that nature will prevail… so if the eaglet is not healthy there is a distinct possibility that the eaglet does not survive the weekend.
Many factors can pose a risk to the highly vulnerable freshly hatched baby eaglet – extreme weather, predators, sometimes even sibling rivalry, or even the parents themselves.
Generally, newborn eaglets have over a 50% chance of surviving their first year once they hatch.
To put things in perspective *trigger warning*, last year Scout ate the last remaining baby eaglet on the livestream, shocking and horrifying viewers – so yes, nature can be cruel and unforgiving.
When are the other two baby bald eagle eggs supposed to hatch?
With the first egg hatched exactly on time on the 20th (it was expected to hatch sometime between March 17th and the 22nd), the remaining two eggs are not far behind!
As a refresher, bald eagle eggs tend to require 35-40 days of incubation to hatch, the first egg was laid on February 10th, the second on the 13th, and the third on February 16th.
This means that the hatch timeline looks like this:
- Egg #1 – March 17th – 22nd
- Egg #2 – March 20th – 25th
- Egg #3 – March 23 – 29th
What happens if a bald eagle egg doesn’t hatch?
Unfortunately, like we’ve said, this is a wild bald eagle nest, so nature will take its course whether we like what we see or not.
In a bald eagle clutch of three eggs, it’s not uncommon for at least one of the eggs to not hatch.
There could be a mixture of reasons why an egg doesn’t hatch, like the egg itself being infertile, weather making the egg nonviable, or inconsistent incubation, just to name a few possible reasons.
If there is an egg that doesn’t hatch, it’s not uncommon for the parents to continue incubating the egg for days or even weeks since they have no way of knowing whether it might still hatch.