Sea eagle shows he’s the daddy with double life

Raptor has raised chicks with two females in Angus and Fife

A male sea eagle has proved his paternal prowess by successfully raising chicks from two different nests for the first time in Scotland.

The eight-year-old raptor, known as Turquoise Z, has been travelling between Angus and Fife nests almost 30 miles apart to play the role of doting dad with two different females.

Known as polygamy, it is rarely seen successfully in sea eagles.

Experts have recorded it on the west coast on a handful of occasions involving nests which were just a few miles apart – but the demands of providing enough food for both always resulted in failure.

Remarkably on this occasion, despite the vast distance between the two Courier Country nests, there has been a successful outcome.

At the nest in Fife, Turquoise Z has raised a female chick, tagged Blue X, with his usual partner and he has also managed to raise another female chick, tagged Blue V, at the nest in Angus with a new female.

RSPB Scotland Sea Eagle Project officer Owen Selly said they were astonished to see the bird beat the odds with his double life.

“Without the wing tags, which allow us to identify individual birds, we would never have uncovered this extraordinary story,” he explained.

Andrew Stevenson, Scottish Natural Heritage (SNH) ornithologist said: “Such polygamous pairing or indeed trios of birds attending a nest has occasionally been recorded as the reintroduced population has established, but what’s amazing here is the distance between the two nests and the fact that both have been successful.”

Picture: Owen Selly. The new Angus chick, Blue V.