Black Eagle Project Roodekrans confirms new chick
A Black Eagle chick now calls Walter Sisulu Botanical Garden its home.
Although the members of the Black Eagle Project Roodekrans have had a limited view of the nest, they can confirm there is a chick in the nest.
Member of the project, Johann van den Berg, explained that due to limited visibility, they had to rely on watching Thulane and Makatsa’s behaviour to determine what was happening in and around the nest.
Related articles: UPDATE: Black Eagles show egg-laying behaviour in Poortview
It was a great learning curve for the members of the project but they were thrilled when photographer, Garth Heydenrych, took images that revealed the chick.
Before announcing the good news, some of the project’s monitors spent long hours in the cold to report on the parents’ every movement – taking prey to the nest and Makatsa most likely feeding a chick.
“After considering all these indicators, we feel confident to announce that we do have a chick on the nest,” said Van den Berg.
They do not know if a second egg was laid, and if so whether it hatched and the chick was killed by the other chick, but they are grateful that there will be a successful breeding season with the new female.
Read more: Black eagle update: The honeymoon is over
By November the chick will be a fledged juvenile and in December it will be pushed from the nest and eventually from the vicinity of the waterfall to find a home elsewhere and continue the cycle.
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