© Mary Chind, The Des Moines Register
The eagles made famous by live, streaming video tend to three hatchlings in April 2011 in their nest south of Decorah, Iowa.
The eagles made famous by live, streaming video tend to three hatchlings in April 2011 in their nest south of Decorah, Iowa.
Nearly 3,800 comments of sadness and outrage flooded the Raptor Resource Project's Facebook page in the next 24 hours. One woman posted that she was so heartbroken she took to the piano to play "Wind Beneath My Wings," which she also played at her mother's funeral.
"People loved this bird," said Bob Anderson, the raptor researcher from Decorah, Iowa who made the Decorah eagles world-famous by first mounting a nest camera in 2008. "I'm trying to keep people calm."
Some questioned what can be done about the bird-zapping problem of electrical lines that has occurred since the first telegraph pole was erected in the mid-19th century.
Power poles are attractive to raptors as high perching spots, and eagles are the most commonly electrocuted birds - 4,300 between 1960 and 1995, according to a federal study cited in a 2005 report by biologist Albert Manville. Electrocution was the fourth-leading cause of death among bald eagles, behind accidental trauma, poisoning and shooting.
Comment: See also: One of America's Oldest Bald Eagles Gets Electrocuted