Empty Nest

The two young golden eagles in Highlands Ranch have left the nest. They can fly (barely), but they still cannot feed themselves. Their mother is doing everything in her power on this windy day, to entice them to chase her down for the prairie dog (we think) that she's carrying.
When you compare the behavior and color of the two offspring on the cliff-top "table" to the adult eagle, the differences are very apparent. The two babies have white on their legs, and are overall very dark. This is very common here in Colorado, where our strong sun and high altitudes quickly fade the color of feathers. Mom is an absolute master of the air, letting it blow her north along the cliff, and then working her way carefully back to her children, trying to get them to chase her in the sky. Peter filmed this cycle multiple times, before Mom finally gave up and decided to feed her children.
We believe the female eaglet is on the left; at 5:30 you'll see little brother carefully side-step away from the two females to patiently wait his turn. In areas with either low prey abundance and/or inexperienced parents, the older eaglet will often kill the younger one, as it competes for all the food and parental care. It's possible that the young male has simply learned to stay away from his sister when she's eating. However, this pair in the HRCA Backcountry are very experienced, having successfully fledged two young in 2017, 2018 and 2019.
By 17:17, the female is absolutely stuffed and "feaks", or wipes and cleans her beak on the rock, indicating that she is done eating. But a minute later, she just can't say no when Mom offers her yet another morsel! Finally, at 19:08, the mother brings the leftovers to her son to begin feeding him.

[@leannjoswick3497]

Amazing!