Bald Eagle Pair Incubating Eggs In Will County: Preserve

WILL COUNTY, IL — Two active bald eagle nests, including one with a mated pair sitting on eggs, have been confirmed in Will County, according to a post from the Forest Preserve District of Will County.

"We don't know how many eggs, but eagles lay one to three eggs and generally average two. Last year, both nests successfully produced two offspring each," the preserve said on its website.

To determine if the eagles are incubating eggs, the eagle in the nest will usually be hunkered down low to incubate eggs, according to the preserve. Preserve volunteers saw the female at one nest hunkering down very low; and in the other nest, both the male and female were in the nest, but appeared to be sitting too high to be incubating yet.

Eggs will hatch after about 35 days, the preserve said. Two weeks after hatching, little eaglet heads may be seen popping out of the nest.

The eggs also have to be rolled every few hours, which ensures the lighter yolk doesn’t rise to the top of the egg surface, which prevents the blood vessels in the yolk from sticking to the shell and killing the developing eaglet, according to the preserve.

Bald eagle nests are about 4 to 5 feet wide and 2 to 4 feet deep, according to the preserve. They are reused each year, but require some maintenance before nesting season.

Longtime District volunteer Joel Craig has been monitoring one nest since it was first built late in 2018 and has noticed how it's changed over time.

"It gets taller each year, and that is just because they are constantly covering what's there and building on top of it," he said in a release. "Whether it’s feces, animal remains or other material, it’s not like they clean the nest out. They just cover it up and add on to it."

This year's new arrivals will further increase the local eagle population because they won't stray too far from home, according to the preserve.

Craig said that an increasing number of immature bald eagles in the winter indicates the ones we're seeing now are residents and not migrants. It's also evidence that we have good, clean water and a healthy fish population to support them year-round.

"To see eagles rebound like they have in this area in the past 10 years has been pretty exciting," Craig said in a release. "To be threatened and endangered when I was a kid to what we’re seeing now, it's really a population explosion in our area over the past few years.

"They're just such majestic birds, it's hard not to be in awe of them," he said. "To continue to watch the nests over the years has been fascinating."

Eagles and their nests are federally protected, and human interference could cause them to abandon the nest and their eggs, according to the preserve. The National Audubon Society recommends being at least 330 feet away from a nest, which is about the length of a football field.

For the protection of the birds, the preserve does not publicly disclose nesting locations.