In honor of USA's 250 years - Bald eagle pair in Wisconsin raises rare set of quadruplets

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The bald eagle has long been seen as a symbol of pride, strength and freedom for the United States. As the nation celebrates its 250th anniversary, one nest of the birds is attracting attention in Wisconsin for a rare sight: quadruplets. In June, volunteers with the Southern Wisconsin Bird Alliance spotted a nest of four healthy eaglets in Dane County. Wade Mapes of Madison first caught sight of the four birds as he was monitoring a nest for the alliance’s Bald Eagle Nest Watch program.

Drew Cashman, who co-created the program in 2018, said he received an email from Mapes about the discovery.“He sent a picture that he had taken of the three, and there were clearly three,” Cashman said. “Then there was one that was kind of hiding on the other side of the nest. It was not as visible. But after looking at it for quite a while, I said, ‘That definitely looks like a beak and a head.’”Bald eagles do not develop their distinctive white heads until they are around 5 years old, so the quadruplets have dark feathers.

Most eagles also begin mating around 4 to 5 years of age, and pairs typically lay between one and three eggs. Around half produce two young. About 10 percent yield three. But a nest of four eaglets that are ready to fly happens only about 0.1 percent of the time nationwide, said Brenna Marsicek, director of outreach for the Southern Wisconsin Bird Alliance.

“This has only happened one other time since we began monitoring nests in Wisconsin, and that was in 2020 with a nest in the Fox Valley,” Marsicek said.

https://www.wpr.org/news/bald-eagle-pair-in-wisconsin-raises-rare-set-of-quadruplets