Flamingo Gardens’ Wildlife Rehabilitator Shannon Gallagher recently participated in an important project with the Wildlife Rescue of Dade County’s Bald Eagle Banding Day. As part of the project, Shannon successfully retrieved two six-week-old eaglets from their nest – 85 feet up in an Australian Pine tree – allowing the team to band them safely on the ground.
Now that these eaglets are banded, they can be tracked through banding reports, providing valuable insight into their movements and survival. In addition to banding, the team collected key biometrics, blood samples, and feathers to assess the eaglets’ health and determine their sex.
When asked about the importance of this process, Shannon explained, “Tracking migration patterns helps us understand where these eagles go, and if they don’t survive, we can retrieve their bodies and determine the cause of death. The bands are color-coded to their permit, making identification easier. Birds of prey are indicators of environmental health, so monitoring them is essential. Their size tells us a lot about their overall condition. Collecting biometrics is crucial, but tracking where they end up is even more important – we still have so much to learn about their journeys. After all, these things have wings.”
During the process, Shannon also removed litter from the nest, including a piece of clothing that had been brought in by an adult eagle. Items like this pose a serious choking hazard and entanglement risk, making their removal critical for their safety.
The nest where these eaglets hatched is part of the monitored Rose and Ron Eagle Nest Cam, which streams live on YouTube for public viewing. All of these acts were done under proper licensing and permitting with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) and the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS). This eagle banding event will be featured on Jeff Corwin’s Extraordinary World on CBS, with an air date to be announced.
Shannon’s hope is, “that these eaglets are never touched by humans again and can live long and healthy lives.”
A special thank you to Lloyd Brown, CWR, for his mentorship and for providing Shannon with this incredible opportunity.
