This live-streaming webcam was set up by the National Parks and Wildlife Service to monitor a pair of white-tailed sea eagles breeding in County Cork. White-tailed sea eagles became extinct in Ireland over 100 years ago but were brought back as part of a reintroduction programme: from 2007 to 2011 one hundred eagle chicks were brought from Norway and released in Killarney National Park. They have since dispersed around Ireland and there are now up to a dozen pairs breeding in counties Cork, Kerry, Clare, Tipperary and Galway.
The birds on this live webcam are Black P (female) and Blue W (male), both of whom were brought to Ireland as part of the reintroduction programme. In 2016, a pair of eagles at this nest raised the first eagle chick to fledge in Co Cork in over a century. However, in 2018 the original female (Green D) was ousted by a younger female P. This new pairing has yet to fledge a chick so we will watch with bated breath to see if they can succeed in 2020.
Find out more about the history of the eagles in Glengarriff and their breeding attempts
Facts about white-tailed sea eagles are here
Department of Culture, Heritage & the Gaeltacht eagle blog
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Blog posts: Name the eaglet! She’s fledged! It’s a girl! Dad goes missing Younger chick dies Eaglecam on RTÉ Six One News
The White-tailed Sea Eagle reintroduction project is a joint initiative between National Parks & Wildlife Service and Golden Eagle Trust in collaboration with Norsk Institutt for Naturforskning (NINA) and Norwegian Ornithological Society. The project is managed by Dr Allan Mee.
RTÉ Six One News – 28th April 2020
Action Clips:
23rd February 2020: In this short video the male can be seen bringing the female a fish a few days before she laid an egg. In this rare footage she can be seen ‘food-begging’ which is normally juvenile behaviour but in this context is probably part of a bonding and courtship ritual.
15th April 2020 11:19am: The female’s behaviour indicates hatching is imminent: the adult birds usually share incubation duties but on this date she was very protective of the nest and did not allow the male to sit on the nest, except when she took a five minute break at lunchtime. This clip shows her ‘defending’ the egg-cup from the male so he flies off again.
15th April 2020 – 6:52pm
First clear sightings of the chick! Hatching happened some time on the 15th April, but it takes a while for the chick to find the strength to raise its head so it can be seen in the nest. In this clip from early evening, the chick’s wobbly, fluffy head can be seen as dusk falls.
16th April 2020 – 6:46am
First feed! The female brooded the chick all night and soon after first light she can be seen feeding feeding the chick. As the day progressed, both the male and female took turn brooding and feeding the chick. At 2:30pm the male can be seen bringing a large, dark prey item to the nest, which was later revealed to be a seabird (razorbill or guillemot).
17th April 2020 – 6:52am
Food drop! Dad brought a fish to the nest in the early morning, but as Mama P rises meets him he drops the fish and it falls out of the nest. She does not look impressed!
19th April 2020 – 9:27am
On Sunday 19th April we were thrilled to see a second chick had hatched. Here’s Dad carefully removing half the eggshell from the nest.
22nd April 2020 – 9:31am
Dad got a bit of a surprise with the antics of a dogfish he’d brought to the nest an hour earlier . . . #freshfish
23rd April 2020 – morning
As the two chicks grow and get stronger it’s easier to see both their heads as their parents feed them. So far fish and seabirds have been the main prey items.
Thanks to the Office of Public Work for permission to erect the camera on their land and to Dr Allan Mee (White-Tailed Sea Eagle Project Manager) for advice & support. Camera installed by Bandwidth Communications under licence from the National Parks & Wildlife Service.
For more information on white-tailed eagles in Ireland and the history of the reintroduction programme: Golden Eagle
For information on Garnish Island, which is managed by the OPW: Garnish Island
