Two White-tailed Eagle chicks were born on April 8th and 11th this year. This marks the first successful breeding in 19 years, since 2003.


White-tailed Eagle parents and chicks at 1 and 4 days old
(Date of photo: April 12, 2022)
Tama Zoo In 1976, White-tailed Eagle was successfully bred for the first time in Japan, and since then, the first pair of "Tokachi" and "Daicetsu" and the second pair of "Blue" and "Kurodake" have continued to breed progressively, with many breeding individuals leaving for other zoos. Since 1997, however, priority has been given to the breeding of the most endangered Japanese Golden Eagle, and White-tailed Eagle was last bred in 2003.

This time, the breeding pair is "Myojin" (male), born in 2013 at Himeji City Zoo, and "Kitami" (female), a wild protected individual (protected in 2002) that is unable to fly. Actually, Myojin's mother is "Tenzin" (born in 1987), who was born from the second pair Ao x Kurodake (the child of the first pair, born in 1982) in Tama, and is the grandchild of the first pair in Tama. Therefore, Myojin is the fourth generation of great-grandchildren, and the chicks born this time are the fifth generation.

The second pair was bred in the flying cage's pseudo-tree nest stand at the time, but this time they were bred in the smaller breeding cage in front of the flying cage. This year, they started nesting and mating around January, and laid two eggs on February 5 and 8, but although the female held the eggs, the male did not switch, and the eggs were broken and lost after about a week. The second egg was laid, and this time the male also took a turn and held the egg. After 35 days of incubation, the first brood hatched on the morning of April 8, and the second brood on April 11, resulting in the birth of a baby chick.

However, as this was the first time for the pair to raise a brood, the female was unable to feed the chicks properly. In addition, the male, who was supposed to carry food to the nest, saw the chicks crying for food and held them under his chest. The female, who could not fly, went to the feeding ground, grabbed the food with one leg, and tried to carry it along the branch to the nest, but dropped it on the way and gave up the attempt. animal keeper The female immediately began feeding. After a few days of throwing some of the food into the nest as a supplement, the male eventually began to carry the food into the nest, and the feeding became smoother as he got the hang of how to tear the food and hand it to the chicks.

A female feeding her two chicks. (Date of photo: April 17, 2022)	The male who brought the food (Date of photo: April 22, 2022)	Feeding by both parents (Date of photo: April 27, 2022)

Although there was some aggression from the larger chick to the smaller one, the two chicks grew well, and after two weeks, the fighting between the chicks ceased. The chicks are now over a month old and seem to have settled down, often sleeping alone during the day. The female can now carry food to the nest in her beak, and sometimes rests on the perch while the male, who has become adept at feeding the chicks, takes care of it. The chicks have molted from downy feathers into dark brown juvenile feathers, and as expected of birds of prey, their legs are developing quickly, and their talons are growing sharply.

It takes about 70 days for the chicks to fledge, but we hope you will gently watch over them so that they continue to grow well and reach that time safely.

A male feeding two chicks. (Date of photo: May 10, 2022)	Chick's claw (Date of photo: May 15, 2022)

[Tama Zoo Wildlife Conservatio Center Kojima]

(May 27, 2022)