Rare Eaglet Comes Out of Its Shell in N.H.

A rare bald eagle has hatched in the northern woods, and wildlife officials said Sunday that it is the first new arrival of its kind in the state in 40 years.

Biologists with the state’s Endangered Species Program confirmed that a pair of eagles nesting along the Magalloway River, not far from the Canadian border, had hatched at least one eaglet.

“The last pair of nesting eagles that we had (in New Hampshire) was in 1949, so it is very significant,” Harold Nevers, a Fish and Game Department biologist, said of the hatching.

Wildlife officials had been watching the large nest since March, and in April, changes in the birds’ flying habits indicated that they were incubating eggs.

The parents are believed to be the only nesting bald eagles in New Hampshire. Another pair is thought to be nesting in northern Maine.

Nevers said the eaglet’s 5-year-old father was released from New York’s eagle repopulation program in 1984. The mother is thought to have come from Maine.