Avian reality show

In these pandemic days, I have craved tales of triumph over adversity. The true story of Starr, Valor I and Valor II has served that purpose perfectly. This trio of bald eagles has successfully bred and raised eaglets over the last several years. This grouping of two males and one female is rare but not unprecedented. Apparently, nontraditional families also occur in the bird world.

I found the eagle trio last March, not long after Illinois went into lockdown. That year, I hadn’t seen the bald eagles that usually spend their winter along the Fox River in our town, West Dundee. I missed them terribly. In true pandemic fashion, I went virtual. I searched for active bald eagle webcams on the Internet and found the eagle trio in a site run by the dedicated folks at the nonprofit Stewards of the Upper Mississippi River Refuge. The trio’s nest is along the river’s backwaters in northwest Illinois in the Upper Mississippi River National Wildlife and Fish Refuge, a vast tract of protected land that runs 261 miles along the river’s shores in Iowa, Illinois, Wisconsin and Minnesota. The webcam was situated above the nest, giving viewers a real-time view of the activity there.

For the uninitiated, nature cams abound on the Internet. You can watch creatures of countless varieties, ranging from hummingbirds to whales to butterflies. Some cams are situated in zoos and wildlife parks, but I prefer those that let you observe the creatures in their natural habitat. Through the spring months last year when the trio was incubating the eggs and raising the eaglets, I checked the eagle trio webcam several times each day. It gave me a fascinating daily dose of nature viewing.

Like any good TV drama, the eagle trio has a compelling backstory. The original eagle trio formed in 2013, after the first female, Hope, became frustrated with the poor parenting skills of her mate, Valor I, the year before. His failure to do his share of the egg incubation and feeding of their two eaglets in 2012 likely contributed to the eaglets’ demise shortly after hatching. In the spring of 2013, Hope and Valor I were still together, but she was also courted by a second male, Valor II. Normally, individual males compete for breeding rights with a female. For whatever reason, Hope accepted Valor II, and Valor I was allowed to stick around. The trio was formed. For several years the three stayed together and successfully raised offspring, with Valor I in a more passive parenting role. It wasn’t until 2016 that observers documented that Valor I was doing his fair share of the parental duties. In both 2015 and 2016, the trio together raised eaglet broods. Apparently, Valor I needed a mentor to learn how to be a good dad.

In 2017, tragedy struck. After two eaglets hatched, the nest was attacked multiple times by two adult eagles, in what was likely a fight for the territory. Hope disappeared and was never seen again. Undaunted, Valor I and Valor II bravely fended off further attacks, protected the eaglets and diligently continued feeding their young. They and their two babies survived, and the eaglets left the nest (called fledging) in May.

Eagles mate for life. If their mate dies, they actively seek a replacement. By September 2017, Valor I and Valor II had found her: Starr. She joined the two males on their nest and, together, the current trio has cooperatively bred and raised at least one or more eaglets to fledging each year through the 2020 breeding season.  To learn more about their story, I recommend this 2019 article from Audubon magazine. Here’s Starr with the trio’s three eaglets in 2019:

In late March 2020 I joined thousands of trio webcam viewers from around the world as the eagles were busy incubating two eggs. I watched, transfixed, as the eaglets hatched in the order they were laid and then were fed by all three adults. Watching the eagles raise their young was the perfect antidote to our limited pandemic lifestyle, and, knowing their dramatic backstory, it was reassuring to witness their mundane activities like eating and housekeeping (although at first there was nothing mundane about seeing the adults tearing into a waterfowl or large, just-caught fish).

Just like our daily lives, theirs are punctuated by occasional bursts of drama. The siblings squabbled over food and, as they grew, pushed each other around. The adults became impatient with one another as they competed for increasingly limited space on the nest. I saw the trio fend off unwanted eagle visitors, altercations that can lead to the death of one or more adults and the unhatched eggs. I also enjoyed the hearing the lively mixed chorus of quacking ducks, squawking geese, tapping woodpeckers and red winged blackbirds making their signature onk-a-REE call.

As the immature eagles prepared to fledge, they diligently practiced spreading their wings and testing them by half-hopping and -flying to a nearby branch. One day they were ready and flew away from the nest for the first time. I wasn’t fortunate enough to see that event live, but, having watched them grow up over almost three months, it was incredibly exciting knowing they had embarked on their journey toward surviving on their own.

Like a TV watcher anticipating the new season of a favorite show, I visited the webcam in late January this year to see how the trio was faring. I wondered: Are they all alive and together? Are they preparing their nest for their next family? Will their new eaglets fledge? I was shocked when I learned that, in the massive, destructive windstorm that swept through the Midwest last summer, their nest was blown down. Fortunately, the eagles, which are generally off the nest by that time of year, were unharmed.

When their nest is destroyed, eagles will typically build a nest close by. Sure enough, the trio is still together and built a new nest in a tree near the original spot. (By the way, building a new nest is no small task. An average-sized bald eagle nest is four to five feet wide and two to four feet deep and weighs hundreds of pounds.) A working camera on the original tree enables you to see the nest from a profile view; here is a link to the live stream. (Unfortunately, the team can’t mount a camera above the new nest until after the nesting season is over.) Here are images of the new nest: an early-stage view in October 2020 and a video screen capture from late January, with Starr proudly guarding their new home:

The cycle of life has begun again. On Valentine’s Day, Starr laid her first egg, and the trio is diligently taking turns incubating at least one egg. 

As models of resilience and perseverance in the face of tremendous adversity, the eagle trio has given me strength and instilled hope during our own turbulent times.