Taking a Close Look
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young eagle's natural instincts make it suspicious of human visitors
to the nest. Did you notice how it uses its beak and wings to show
it isn't happy? It is warning the intruder that it will put up a fight
if necessary! Did you notice the view in the background? You
can only see the tops of the trees.
It is June in New York state and time for eagle biologists to visit the nest sites. They want to know how many nestlings hatched and survived. The juveniles in the nest are banded before they fledge, or leave the nest. The eaglets are banded with both a federal and a state band. Each bird gets a unique number. That number along with the eagle's age, sex, and hatching location are recorded. When an eagle dies or is injured and is found wearing a band, biologists study the age, how far the bird was away from it's hatching location and numerous other things.