White-tailed eagle chick dies from bird flu

White-tailed eagle chick dies from bird fl u

Concerns are growing over the impact bird fl u might have on Scotland’s iconic white-tailed eagle population after a dead chick on Mull tested positive for the disease.

Over the last few weeks, chicks from at least four white-tailed eagle nests on the island have either died on the nest shortly before or after fl edging. In mid-July, 19 chicks were on the verge of fl edging from nests in Mull which

would have “been just one fewer than the record number in 2021. But then the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB) Scotland’s Mull offi cer Dave Sexton started getting unexpected reports of suspected dead chicks from multiple locations. Mr Sexton said: ‘Late summer is usually an incredible time of year for Mull’s white-tailed eagles as the youngsters fl edge and learn to fend for themselves; a happy time for those of us monitoring them during their fi rst few months. ‘These past few weeks though have instead been heart-breaking with so many chicks dying. Visiting nest after nest where, instead of hearing young birds calling, there is silence, and where adult birds are ignoring my presence rather than alarming, is awful. ‘At the moment on Mull, it appears to just be the chicks impacted but such a substantial loss of this year’s youngsters is very worrying. My one uplifting moment in all this has been fi nding Skye and Frisa’s 25th chick alive and well and fl ying confi dently. I

can only hope she survives and that adult birds on Mull continue to be unaffected.’ With the seriousness of bird fl u in mind, expert climbers scaled Sitka spruce trees to access two of the nests where it was thought chicks had died to swab the bodies for testing. The These past few weeks though bodies at two of the other nests were too decomposed to be tested. The climbers have instead were wearing full personal been heart- protective equipment when breaking with making the 12-metre climbs so many chicks and found both chicks dead dying in the nests. The swab taken from the most recently deceased chick was positive for bird fl u. The other was negative, but the chick was in an advanced state of decomposition which may have affected the results, according to RSPB Scotland and NatureScot. The deaths of these white-tailed eagle chicks

have now made a signifi cant contribution to a large drop in Mull breeding success this year. As long-lived birds, one year of such chick losses should not impact the species signifi cantly in the long term. However, concerns are that a prolonged outbreak of bird fl u could cause several more summers of chicks dying. White-tailed eagle chicks always have challenges to overcome surviving their fi rst few months and this year bad weather in the spring and tree collapses were already having an impact on survival rates. Now, with these earlier deaths combined with the more recent ones, just half the number of chicks as survived in 2021 are expected to survive this year. Dead white-tailed eagle chicks elsewhere on the west coast have also tested positive for Highly Pathogenic Avian Infl uenza (HPAI). The dead chick joins the tens, possibly hundreds, of thousands of wild birds that have already died in the UK because of this unprecedented outbreak of HPAI. The Scottish Government responded to calls for action by setting up a taskforce led by NatureScot which will co-ordinate action to tackle the current outbreak, plan ahead for future outbreaks and take action to help protect and restore bird populations and improve their resilience.