WASHINGTON — Monday was a big day for D.C.’s eagle family at the National Arboretum as one of the eaglets took flight for the first time.
The Eagle-Cam captured one of the bald eaglets, Glory, finally making the big jump, spreading its wings and flying out of its nest for the first time.
Technically, this is called fledgling, when a young eaglet flies out of the nest and the tree it’s in and manages to make a safe return.
Glory had left its nest before, but that was more the result of a misstep than anything else in what the American Eagle Foundation called an “accidental fledgling.”
After about an hour of exploring, Glory rejoined its sister in the nest tree.
Glory couldn’t have chosen a more symbolic time to fledge the nest, since Tuesday is American Eagle Day.
