In a huge nest of twigs high above an icy cold Alaskan river a Bald Eagle chick cracked open her egg For two days the baby eagle had scraped her beak against the inside of the eggshell Now she pushed hard with her head till the eggshell split open She was out
The cold wind swept over the large eagle nest perched in a tall old tree The eaglet was covered only in thin gray and white down She shivered in the freezing air until her mother tucked the baby under her own warm body
Even before the eagle chick could see she started to take bits of fish from her parents beaks into her beak Soon her wings became longer and stronger In one month she could see stand on her own and begin to tear food with her own beak By six weeks she was almost as big as her parents with a wingspan of more than six feet
Bit by bit her body became covered with the thousands of feathers she would need to fly and keep warm She used her beak to preen her feathers every day She cleaned and smoothed them shifted them to stay warm or Cool off and waterproofed them with oil from a gland near her tail
