ST. LOUIS – Two Bald Eagle chicks were rescued by the World Bird Sanctuary after they reportedly fell from their nest into St. Francois County’s Big River.

A landowner in that area, named Ray Settle, was checking his property when he discovered the two chicks—alive—in their nest, sinking into the river.

He immediately contacted the World Bird Sanctuary to help rescue the eaglets.

During the rescue operation at the Big River, Settle used his canoe to search for the chicks and the organization sent out two of their hospital staff.

The World Bird Sanctuary believes that the canoe helped rescuers get close to the eaglets. When both chicks were saved, they were estimated to be about seven weeks old.

Because they are so young, the two Bald Eagle chicks are not mobile and are at a stage where most eaglets are just learning to stand.

The chicks were then taken to the World Bird Sanctuary in St. Louis, each receiving medical examinations. The examinations concluded that the chicks sustained no injuries when they initially landed in the Big River.

Although rescued, the World Bird Sanctuary said that the eaglets will need to remain at the sanctuary until they are old enough because their nest was destroyed. 

“The eaglets will be placed with a surrogate adult Bald Eagle, which is also a recovering patient, and receive minimal human interaction for their time in care to prevent them from socializing with people. They will be housed in one of the sanctuary’s largest flights so that once they leave their surrogate nest, they can begin building flight muscles,”  the World Bird Sanctuary wrote.

Kira Klebe, World Bird Sanctuary’s Rehabilitation Director, expressed gratitude for her organization taking in the two chicks, as well as Settle’s help in rescuing them.

“His willingness to help is what saved these two eaglets. At the rate their nest was breaking up, they likely only had another hour or so before they would have been underwater,” Klebe said. “At their current stage of muscle development, it is uncertain if they would have been able to make the swim to shore or would have just ended up drowning.”

Updates about the eaglets can be found on the World Bird Sanctuary’s Facebook or Instagram.