CHICAGO (AP) — Two bald eagles hatchlings have been spotted in a nest in a Chicago park in what city officials believe is the raptors’ first successful wild breeding in the Windy City in more than a century.Chicago Park District officials announced last week that bird-watchers observed nesting activity starting in February in Park 597 along the Calumet River on the city’s Southeast Side. The first eaglet was spotted in the nest on April 28 and a second was confirmed May 7. Irene Tostado, a park district spokesperson, said the eaglets appear to be two to three weeks old.Pat Pearson and her husband, Steve, discovered the first eaglet. “We started looking around, and lo and behold, this little fuzzy head sticks up with a big beak and we were just ecstatic. Patty actually broke into tears. I started crying,” Steve Pearson said. “It was really very touching, because we had this kind of instinct, I think, just the wonder and the awe of seeing these eagles right here in Chicago with a baby. It was really overwhelming.”
Habitat degradation and insecticide contamination of food sources decimated the bald eagle population in the second half of the 20th century, but the bird has made a dramatic comeback over the last 40 years. The bald eagle — the official national bird of the United States — was removed from the federal endangered species list in 2007.
