White-tailed eagles have welcomed offspring – a touching recording from a nest in Piotrków

Exactly on April Fools’ Day, the Eagle Conservation Committee announced an extremely joyful (and real) event: white-tailed eagles nesting in the forests near Piotrków in the Łódź Voivodeship have welcomed their first chick of the year. The recording showing the expanded bird family can be watched online.

White-tailed eagles under observation

Members of the Eagle Conservation Committee (KOO) help prepare nests for these noble Polish birds every year and install cameras in them. Monitoring helps assess national populations and their problems, and for us viewers it is an opportunity to broaden our knowledge and ornithological awareness. This year, KOO is observing ospreys in Nidzica and Jedwabno, black storks in Sieraków, and white-tailed eagles in the Piotrków Forest District and the Woziwoda Forest District in the Tuchola Forest.

It was the Piotrków white-tailed eagles that became internet stars this week. On April 1 at 8:19 a.m., the shell cracked and the chick’s head emerged from the incubated egg, and a moment later the quiet chirping of the little one could be heard.

The live feed from the nest, available on YouTube, is the result of cooperation between KOO, UNEP/GRID-Warsaw, and foresters from the Piotrków Forest District and the Warsaw University of Life Sciences Forest Experimental Station in Rogów. It is part of the project Protection of birds of prey in Poland, financed by the ORLEN Foundation.

Love and an unfortunate accident: a fascinating breeding story

The nest currently occupied by the white-tailed eagles was originally built by black storks and later abandoned. The eagle pair took over the treetop residence and expanded it to gigantic proportions: 2.5 m in height and 2.5 m in diameter. In 2024, KOO ringed one chick there, and in 2025 two more.

This year in March, a ringed pair of white-tailed eagles monitored by ornithologists appeared again in the nest: Petra and Kamyk, experienced birds over 10 years old. The female laid three eggs but shared incubation duties fairly with her partner. While one parent cared for the clutch, the other brought hay to reinforce the nest.

In a recording from March 29 this year, Kamyk can be seen bringing his partner a hunted coot and allowing her to eat her fill in peace. According to KOO ornithologists, such behavior indicates a strong bond between the pair. Two days later, Petra went hunting and brought back a sizable carp. Unfortunately, the incubating male moved awkwardly at that moment and pierced the shell of one of the eggs.

Is the white-tailed eagle really an eagle? A bird that likes water

The white-tailed eagle (Haliaeetus albicilla), commonly referred to as an eagle, is a large (the largest in Poland) bird of prey belonging to the hawk family. In fact, it does not belong to the true eagles of the genus Aquila and is genetically closer to hawks. This ornithological nomenclature does not have to limit us, however. In English, the species is indeed an eagle (white-tailed eagle), and the bird on Poland’s national emblem is also a white-tailed eagle.

As an interesting fact, the white-tailed eagle was the first bird of prey species to be protected in Poland. At the end of the 19th century, its numbers declined significantly due to shooting and the use of DDT in agriculture. Conservation efforts have been highly successful, and today the national population, estimated at around 1,000–1,400 breeding pairs, is the third largest in Europe after Norway and Russia.

These noble birds are most easily encountered near water, especially in Masuria and Western Pomerania, but their numbers are also steadily increasing in central Poland. They feed mainly on fish and waterfowl, so their future depends on the condition of our rivers, lakes, and the coastal waters of the Baltic Sea.