Eagle successfully raises chicks from two nests

18/08/2017

   

An eight-year-old male White-tailed Eagle known as Turquoise Z has been travelling between Angus and Fife visiting two nests, more than 28 miles apart, and raising chicks with two different females, RSPB Scotland has announced.

This unusual behaviour, known as polygamy, is rarely recorded in sea eagles. It has been seen on the west coast of Scotland on a handful of occasions, but these nests were just a few miles apart and the demands of providing enough food for both nests always resulted in failure.

Despite the vast distance between these two nests, however, there has been a successful outcome. In Fife, Turquoise Z raised a female chick tagged Blue X with his usual partner; he raised a second female tagged Blue V at the nest in Angus with a new partner.

Turquoise Z was released in 2009 as part of the east Scotland reintroduction. It has been breeding in a Forest Enterprise Scotland Woodland in Fife since 2013 with a female released in the same year, known as Turquoise 1.

Continued