FORT MYERS, Fla. — While most people spend their Sundays relaxing and taking time for themselves, beloved Southwest Florida eagle father M15 was busy chasing away intruders from the nest.
A tweet from the Southwest Florida Eagle Cam explains how the papa bird repeatedly had to defend his territory and protect the eaglets.
While going about his parental duties of bringing food to his hungry babies, there was an intruder who was following M15 trying to snag some of the fish.
M15 was able to make it to the nest without the fish being stolen, and he immediately started to vocalize at the intruder, who was circling the nest.
This was when things started to get more heated between the papa bird and the intruder. M15 moved to the veranda, and the intruder swoops him.
M15 successfully chases the unknown bird away from the area of the nest while the eaglets continue eating the fish.
And speaking of defending the nest, E21 and E22 seem to be growing more territorial as well. A snippet from the eagle cam showed the eaglets letting a visiting eagle know they were unwelcome.
The bird landed on top of the nest tree before flying to a nearby snag tree.
"It finally leaves, thanks possibly to the protest of E21 & E22," leaders behind the eagle cam wrote on YouTube. "[The] cutest nest protectors we ever did see!"
The Southwest Florida Eagle Cam has been livestreaming this nest since 2012. Following some downtime after Hurricane Ian, the live look returned — and the eagles rebuilt their nest. Today, it uses four discreet cameras that monitor the birds around the clock.
For anyone wanting to watch highlights from the Southwest Florida Eagle Cam, you can find them here.
You can also check out the 24-hour live stream down below to keep an eye out for Harriet and see how the eaglets are doing: