“Love Bird” Eagles Show Courting Isn’t Just for Humans

A wild bald eagle has been visiting a female bald eagle twice a day at California’s  Orange County Zoo inside Irvine Regional Park. Zoo employees began noticing the bald eagle about a week and a half ago. It tends to perch in a sycamore tree 15 feet away from the bald and golden eagle enclosures where six-year-old female named Olivia lives. The male visits in the mornings and afternoons.

According to zoo manager Donald Zeigler, the male lands next to the eagle exhibit and the two birds squawk to each other.

Only a few hundred wild mating pairs of bald eagles exist in Southern California. During the 1960s, according to the Los Angeles Times, bald eagles nearly went extinct in California, partially due to the pesticide DDT which caused the birds to lay eggs with thin shells that could not hatch.

Sadly, Olivia cannot be released from the enclosure because of an injury to her eye in the wild. The zoo believes she would not survive on her own.

Orange County Zoo posted  the following video of the wild eagle. Because Olivia cannot be released into the wild, the romance has little chance of continuing. Officials believe the male will likely go in search of another potential mate when he realizes that a true romance with Olivia is impossible.

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