Lesser Spotted Eagles - Magnus and Maia Estonia 2019

[pazi]

The second egg is more or less nature's reserve for cases when the first one isn't fertile.

I wonder what evolutionary bottleneck these birds have hit that has caused them to develop this behaviour.
It is clear now that the food is abundant, there should no longer be a need for siblicide. Unfortunately it seems to be imprinted so deep the circumstance has no control over the behaviour, at least not on the time scale we can observe.

[Timea]

13.05

Large, dark rodent. Maia tears it from Magnus' left talon.

[Lussi05]

19:55 - The Eye

19:57 - The Look

[IceAge]

21:12
the chick is alone

[IceAge]

June 26.

Good morning ,
07:39
Maia covers her sleeping chick

[Lussi05]

Good morning

08:13 - It`s raining. Maia protects her chick.

[Timea]

15.12

Milestone: Chick tries to swallow its 1st Frog -brought by Magnus-
independently, but has to drop it.
A milestone for the attempt anyway :-)) Maia takes over and feeds it.


Maia took it over from Magnus and Chick grabbed it out of Maia's beak. Here all 3 are together.

[IceAge]

15:21

alone


and mom is back

[Timea]

15.20
Wow, I'm stunned by the sound the little Chick makes. Already calling like a LSE, it sees Maia flying to the nest with a leafy twig.

[Timea]

15:21

and mom is back

Hi IceAge, did you hear the Chick? Amazing, wasn't it!

[IceAge]

Hi IceAge, did you hear the Chick? Amazing, wasn't it!

Unfortunately not. I'm in the office and I have the speaker off.

[Timea]

Unfortunately not. I'm in the office and I have the speaker off.

Understandable...a pity though :-))

[Timea]

16.48

Wonder what will happen: Maia out, Magnus brings a prey.

Could not see if Chick took it, but Maia returns and finds it in front of Chick. And feeds it right away.

[Timea]

Feeding done, now trying to find the right place for this.

[Timea]

17.11
Magnus brings a bird (awwww) as a prey. (Yellow legs, blunt beak, round head...)

Zoomed

[Tatyana]

Does the LSE chick grow faster than the GSE chick? Or does it just seem?

[IceAge]

June 27.

Good morning,

07:45
a wet Maia covers her chick.


11:17

[IceAge]

15:31
Maia comes with a very small frog. The chick thinks that was not enough .

15:43
Maiia flies away.

[Timea]

Good day everyone!

15.11
Maia was out and soon returned with a Frog, which she tried the Chick to eat by itself. Falls out of the Chick's beak every time.

Maia changed position and tried several times more to convince the Chick it has to eat the Frog in whole but it does not work. Finally Maia "cuts" the Frog and feeds it in pieces.

[Timea]

15.43

Maia either sees or hears something below, concentrates and "dives" down. Wonder what she'll bring to the nest.