The eagle does such an interesting thing. She breaks off a branch from a tree or bush, takes it in her beak, rises to a great height and starts circling with this branch. Eagles begin to fly around the female. Then she throws this branch down, and she watches. And some eagle picks up this branch in the air, without letting it fall, and then brings it to the female very carefully, from beak to beak. The eagle takes this branch and throws it down again, the male catches it again and brings it to her, and she throws it down again… And so it repeats many, many times. If during a certain time and repeatedly throwing the branch the eagle picks it up each time, then the female chooses him and they mate with him.
Why she’s doing it, you’ll understand later.
Then they gather high on a rock, build a nest out of stiff twigs, and Mama and Papa begin to pluck fluff and feathers out of themselves, out of their own flesh, with their beaks. With this down and feathers they line the nest, fill all the holes in it, and make it soft and warm. In such a soft and warm nest the eagle lays eggs, and then they incubate their chicks. When the eaglets appear, the parents cover them with their bodies until they are stronger. They cover them with their wings from the rain, from the scorching sun, bring them water and food, and the chicks grow. Their feathers begin to grow, and their wings and tail grow strong.
And now they have fledged, even though they are still small. Then mom and dad see that it’s time…
Daddy sits on the edge of the nest and starts pounding on it with his wings: flailing, pounding, shaking the nest. What for? To beat out all the feathers and fluff so that all that’s left is a hard frame made of twigs that they weaved and folded in the beginning. And the chicks sit in this empty nest, they feel uncomfortable, stiff, and they don’t understand what happened: after all, Mommy and Daddy were so affectionate and caring before. At this time, mom flies somewhere, catches a fish and sits somewhere within five meters from the nest, so the chicks can see. Then, in front of her chicks, she begins to slowly eat the fish.
Nestlings sit in the nest, screaming, squeaking, do not understand what happened, because before everything was different. Mother and father fed them, gave them water, and now everything is gone: the nest has become rigid, there are no feathers and fluff, and parents themselves eat fish, and do not give them.
What to do? They want to eat, so they have to get out of the nest. And then the chicks begin to make movements that they have never made before. They wouldn’t have done them anymore if their parents had continued to babysit them. The chicks begin to crawl out of the nest. Here the eaglet comes out, so clumsy, can’t do anything yet, doesn’t know anything. The nest is on the rock, on the steep cliff so that no predators can approach it. The chick falls off this slope, and then flies into the abyss. And then daddy (the one who used to catch twigs) rushes down and catches the eaglet on his back without letting it crash. And then, on his back, he lifts it up again to the uncomfortable nest, again to the rock, and everything starts all over again. Those chicks fall, and Father catches them.
And at some point in the fall, the eaglet begins to make a movement that it has never done before: it spreads its lateral spurs-wings in the wind, getting into the airflow and thus begins to fly. This is how eagles teach their chicks. And as soon as the chick begins to fly on its own, the parents take it with them and show it places where there are fish. They no longer carry it in their beak.
