Baby eagles need to learn how to survive in the wild, but they don’t go to school like you. Baby eagles learn from watching their parents. This is a special animal behaviour called imprinting.
When a baby eagle is only 2 months old he will start watching how his Mummy hunts for food and also how she flies. To help the baby eagle, the Mummy will fly round and round the nest, with food in her claws. This makes the baby eagle curious (and also very hungry!) so he will jump out of the nest and start trying to fly! When the baby eagle is 6 months old he will be an expert flyer.
Do you remember how Enda the eagle couldn’t fly very well so Garth and Bev showed him?
This is how you fly Enda!
Enda figures it out!
Well eagles are funny creatures; because Enda was so young he thought Garth and Bev were his parents!
Go Enda!
Eagles aren’t the only birds that copy what their parents do. Ducks and geese think the first animal they see when they are born is their Mum! Watch the movie ‘Fly Away Home’ to see how a whole flock of geese thought a kid, just like you, was their Mum!
Did you know?
A baby eagle in captivity needs to be fed by an eagle hand puppet! Otherwise the baby eagle gets confused and won’t be able to learn how to fly from real eagles, because he thinks he’s human!
