Bald Eagle Chicks Hatch on Santa Cruz Island

Two bald eagle chicks have hatched in a nest high up in a pine tree overlooking Santa Cruz Island’s Pelican Harbor, and the National Park Service has set up a webcam at nps.gov/chis for everyone to watch. The eaglets are the offspring of a pair that has used the same nest for five straight years, starting in 2006, when they were the first eagles to produce a wild-born chick on the Channel Islands since the species—which was wiped off the island due to DDT pollution—was reintroduced in 2002. Today, there are more than 30 adult bald eagles flying around the northern Channel Islands, and there may be as many as nine nests this year on Santa Cruz and Santa Rosa islands.