Aviary’s wandering sea eagle gets potential mate
After nine days of wanderlust flying around Pittsburgh in 2021, Kodiak “Kody,” the National Aviary’s Steller’s sea eagle, has a new girlfriend.
Could it be at age 18 he is settling down?
The female eagle comes to the National Aviary on the North Side from a cooperative international program to save the Steller’s sea eagles from extinction. This species of large eagles is primarily found in Russia and Japan.
“We are really excited on all fronts. We want to get Kody a mate,” said Kurt Hundgen, the aviary’s senior director of animal care and conservation programs.
The new eagle “puts us in a position for a better habitat and program, a better exhibit for visitors that hopefully results in breeding,” he said.
Kody is well known to the public after he escaped from his aviary enclosure several years ago. Residents provided sightings of Kody, who with a 6- to 8-foot wingspan and huge yellow beak was hard to miss.
Aviary teams scoured the region and eventually captured Kody in a residential housing plan in Pine.
Kody has been healthy and happy ever since in a renovated environment with a new pool, more vegetation and perching areas plus a selection of healthy food options at the aviary, said Cathy Schlott, director of animal programs and experiences.
“For Kody, it’s like living at a five-star resort,” she said.
Now he has a new potential mate to share it with. The two eagles are cohabitating in an outdoor environment with a glass wall in The Charity Randall Foundation Eagle Hall.
The 10- year- old female was
hatched in a European zoo and arrived in February. She has been kept behind the scenes, first in quarantine, Hundgen said.
Aviary staff set up trial introductions of the two eagles, a sort of first date.
“There are some positive signs such as they are eating at the same time,” he said
The two birds are vocalizing as well. “The signs we have seen are very positive. They are progressing.”
Kody has never bred, although he did have a prior potential mate, Aleutia.
Both of the aviary’s current sea eagles are sexually mature and can live 30-35 years, Hundgen said.
The Steller’s sea eagle breeding season begins in January and February.
The aviary has already installed a nesting platform in the birds’ environment so they become accustomed to it before courtship. Natural nesting materials such as grasses and pine branches will be added to the exhibit around breeding time.
“The big picture is that breeding is a process for large raptors,” Hundgen said. “It takes time to go through the pair bonding process.”
The female eagle is larger than Kody and is among the largest birds at the aviary.
Females are up one-third larger than males in eagles, falcons, hawks and owls, Schlott said.
Seeing the two large birds in the aviary exhibit “takes your breath away,” she said. “The public can come to get close to this big, beautiful, majestic species.”
Given the public’s involvement in finding Kody, the aviary is asking residents to name the female sea eagle. Through 5 p.m. Sept. 4, the National Aviary will accept name suggestions at www.aviary.org.
The International Union for Conservation of Nature lists the Steller’s sea eagle as “vulnerable to extinction.” There were up to 5,100 Steller’s eagles in 2012, according to the Association of Zoos and Aquariums’ raptor advisory group.
The plummeting population is due to habitat loss, lead poisoning, climate change and a lack of food supply because of overfishing, Schlott said. They do breed in captivity with the most success at zoos in Russia, Hundgen said.
“They need cold weather and that’s why it’s ideal to have them in Pittsburgh,” he said.
The Aviary’s two Steller’s Sea eagles are among only 27 Steller’s eagles at 14 zoos in North America.