It's nearly a certainty that E26 will be an only eaglet.
A second egg — laid Nov. 15 — is past the 40-day benchmark for a successful hatch and the hope for a "Christmas Miracle" has come and gone like so much holiday gift wrapping.
Breeding pair F23 and M15 can be seen on the Southwest Florida Eagle Cam as they continue to dutifully roll the egg. But it's probable their ministrations will be for naught. They are also dutiful in their care and feeding of E26, which hatched Dec. 18.
Southwest Florida Eagle Cam co-founder Ginnie Pritchett McSpadden confirmed that the egg had officially passed the 40th day of incubation.
"At this point, we are certain egg number 2 is no longer viable," she said Sunday. "This isn't the first time we have witnessed an unsuccessful hatch in the nest. (In) 2017, with E9's clutch, was the last of this nature. It's always sad to think what might have been, but luckily we have a strong, healthy and spunky E26 to watch grow and flourish over the next 3 months."
McSpadden said the most likely next activity would be to see the adult eagles start to cover up or move the egg outside of the nest bole — the central part of the nest.
The unhatched egg will then eventually deteriorate and fall apart. Meanwhile, F23 and M15 will continue to care for E26, with the chick expected to grow until it's ready to fledge in several months.
Possible causes for the egg failure were laid out by one viewer on the nest cam, who goes by the name Elfruler, a retired university professor and an avid birdwatcher, especially for eagles.
Elfruler has a website devoted to eagles, a YouTube channel capturing videos of eagles in nests at several locations, a listing of links to nest cameras around the U.S. and Canada, and a blog.
While unable to provide a specific cause for the failed hatching, Elfruler suggested possibilities.
"If the ovum was never fertilized, there would be no embryo, so nothing to hatch. If it was fertilized and an embryo began to develop, many things could interrupt that process so that the embryo eventually was nonviable. This could include biological or chemical contaminants. Note that both eggs would be likely to have been exposed to such contaminants," Elfruler said.
"Another possibility is that something happened to the second egg that might have damaged it before the embryo inside could successfully pierce the shell membranes and the shell. Even examining a retrieved egg would be unlikely to reveal what that damage was and how it was caused."
Elfruler's website has a sizeable section called "When Bald Eagle Eggs Don't Hatch."
The site also lists data collected from 2006-20 from bald eagle video cameras that yielded a body of statistics about eggs, hatches and fledges.
"Over the 15-year period, 20.8% of the eggs laid at these nests were lost or never hatched," Elfruler said. "This falls within the range of 10%-25% of unhatched eggs that is suggested in published research."
Furthermore, Elfruler writes, "If an egg remains unhatched, it is either unfertilized (sometimes referred to as infertile) or nonviable (or inviable). Infertility is an issue concerning the reproductive processes of one or both parents. Nonviability (not able to live or survive) is an issue with the development of the embryo. In only about 5% of the losses in the table were eggs determined with certainty to be infertile or nonviable. This page explores what might cause infertility and nonviability."
The failure list is rather exhaustive. Here's a link to the information.
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