Florida neighbors, wildlife rescuers save baby eagle that fell out of its nest: 'It was awesome!'
MELBOURNE, Fla. - Homeowners and wildlife rescuers worked together to save a bald eagle that had fallen out of its nest in a Florida wildlife preserve.
The ordeal happened on Monday in Melbourne. Neighbors saw the baby eagle fall from a massive tree in their backyard and get stuck on the ground. The bird could have died, but rescuers made sure that didn’t happen.
"It was just a bunch of flapping, and all of a sudden, we saw the baby fall," said Angela Boynton, who loves watching the eagle family from her family’s back porch.
The eaglet can’t fly independently, so Boynton and her mom knew that fall could have been the end.
"There’s no way that that eaglet would have made it because there’s gators in there, and there’s wild boars, and there’s brush," said Chris Vellanti.
The mom-and-daughter duo knew they had to act fast to save the eagle, so they called for help. Wild Florida Rescue and the Audubon Center for Birds and Prey raced to the scene in Suntree. They used a neighbor’s canoe, trekked through the preserve, and found the eagle quickly.
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"We could get her to the boat and the bird safely across where they needed to be and in the hands of some excellent people over there that can rehab it well," said Kris Morris with Wild Florida Rescue. She was on the scene during the rescue.
After being saved, the eagle was dehydrated but in good spirits. The bird's parents, whom neighbors call Lucy and Frank, watched the entire ordeal from above. Days after the rescue, the parents were still standing watch by the nest on Friday, waiting for their baby to return home.
"It was awesome," concluded Vellanti.
The eagle is still getting care at the Audubon Center, but the goal is to nurse it back to health and release the eagle back into the wild and back to its family.