This is Bird Note.

In late summer, a young bald eagle leaves the nest and sets out on its own for the first time.

It's the culmination of nearly a year's work by the parents. Let's recap how it might have gone.

Male and female meet up in late fall, build a nest or add sticks to their old one over the winter, and by March, usually have two eggs.

The female incubates for a month in a bit, with the male taking an occasional turn.

The result? A couple of tiny, three-ounce chicks.

The adults then take to hunting fish and other prey, tearing it into bite-sized chunks for the growing youngsters,

which gain a pound in weight every four or five days.

At eight weeks, they're all brown and as heavy as the adults, 10 to 14 pounds.

Two weeks later, they make their first short, plumsy flights.

But it'll take another ten weeks of practice flights and provisioning by the adults before the young birds are ready to strike out on their own.

And when they do, they strike out in grand fashion,

wandering over the continent for perhaps thousands of miles until four years after hatching, they have their full adult plumage.

Only then might they seek a mate and build their own nest.

For bird note, I'm Mary McCann.