Eagle Cam

This is so cool.  Sydney and Hannah thought that I would like this, and I thought each of you might like to see it.

This is a live cam of Eaglets.  You can watch them in the nest and see them being fed by their parents.  Learn more about eagles at this site.

Click below and follow the link

http://www.infotecbusinesssystems.com/wildlife/

After looking at this site see if you can answer these questions...

• How would you describe these young birds to someone who has never seen them?
  
  
• What clues do their body parts give you about how eagles are "adapted" to survive in their environment?

• Compare the babies with the adult eagle. How are the body parts the same? How are they different?
  
  
• What new clues does this give you about how eagles are adapted to survive?

My, what big wings they have!
	The wings will be 6 feet across before these kids even leave the nest! When their feathers come in, the babies will need flapping practice before they can fly! Those big wings help adults glide easily on rising warm air so they can hunt and migrate. They are big enough to carry the weight of the eagle plus a large fish!

Did you notice those big feet (called talons) with sharp claws?

The feet have to grow strong quickly so the babies can hang on tight in strong winds. The kids also need to hang on to the nest when they go to the edge to poop! An eagle can use its sharp claws to dig into a thick tough fish to kill it. It can also shut its claws tight to hold onto a fish or perch on a branch. When mom or dad are in the nest, they ball their talons like a fist so they don't hurt the babies!

Those beaks are almost as big as the babies' heads!

Each one used a sharp "tooth" near the end of its beak to break out of its egg. These hungry eaglets are ready to snatch fish and meat from their parents' beaks and tear it up themselves. The strong sharp beaks help adults tear up fish and frozen roadkill. They can use their beaks gently, too, when they feed the kids! It will be 4 or 5 years before the babies' heads and tails turn white. What else did you observe?

Adaptations That Help Eagles Survive

Background
An ornithologist seeing an eagle for the first time could instantly guess that this bird is a predator, it probably catches fish by plucking them from the water with its feet, it flies long distances without a lot of flapping, nests in trees, and mates for life. How? Fascinating secrets are revealed when we study how an organism's body--and its behavior--are adapted to its environment.

An "adaptation" is a physical or behavioral feature that evolved in response to an organism's environment, due to pressures for survival. These adaptations don't happen overnight; they are slow, gradual changes that can take hundreds of thousands of years to evolve. If an animal has a particular physical characteristic or behavior that enables it to survive when others in its species are less likely to, that trait gets passed onto its offspring and to future generations.

How a species looks (its anatomy), as well as how it behaves (how it moves, obtains food, reproduces, responds to danger, etc.) all relate to the species' evolutionary history.

In this lesson, we'll look closely at eagles, from head to toe. Remember: There's always a WHY behind WHAT you see. So whenever you see an unusual behavior or body part, ask yourself WHY...

Return to Home