Bald eagle chicks hatch in West Virginia after nest faced tragedy last year
Three bald eagle chicks have hatched in a West Virginia nest to parents that endured tragedy last year during their first mating season together.
The day-to-day lives of Bella and Scout, as well as their three new eaglets, are captured on the livestream camera at the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s National Conservation Training Center.
The successful hatchings come about a year after Scout ate two of his chicks as a first-time dad, leaving the pair with no surviving eaglets from their first nesting season, McClatchy News previously reported.
Bella and the roughly 5-year-old Scout became a pair in 2024 after Bella’s last mate, a nearly 12-year resident of the nest, disappeared in October 2023, according to the eagle cam team.
In her second season with Scout, Bella laid her eggs Feb. 10, Feb. 13 and Feb. 16, then spent the next five weeks alternating with Scout to incubate them around the clock.
A pip, or a small hole indicating hatching, formed in the first egg March 20, and the parents were seen peering closely at the egg as the first chick broke out over the course of the day. Then came the second chick, and finally the third came into the world at about 10 a.m. March 24.
All eyes are now on Scout, who has already taken turns incubating the eggs and keeping the new babies warm without incident. Last year, Scout killed both eaglets shortly after they hatched.
“I just pray the outcome is better than last year’s,” one eagle cam watcher wrote on Facebook.
Randy Robinson with the NCTC said Scout’s behavior during the incubation period indicated things would be different this time around once the eaglets hatched.
“Scout is doing a whole lot better this year,” Robinson said during a live chat prior to the hatchings. “He’s doing all the right things. He’s been bringing fish in, he has been regularly incubating eggs and turning the eggs, bringing dry grass in and being very regular about doing that. So I think those are all good signs that he’s learning as he goes.”
The 2025 nesting season marks the 20th captured on the NCTC Eagle Cam for viewers to watch.
Over the next 12 weeks, the eaglets are expected to grow until they fledge in June and leave the nest for the first time, experts say.
“The juvenile eagles will then spend the summer months near the river with the adults to hone their fishing and hunting skills,” according to the FWS. “During the summer, we will see the juveniles back in the nest on occasion, but by fall they are on their own.”
The National Conservation Training Center is about a 75-mile drive northwest from Washington, D.C.
You can watch the eagle family here.
This story was originally published March 24, 2025 at 12:22 PM with the headline "Bald eagle chicks hatch in West Virginia after nest faced tragedy last year."