Adam Patterson, Wildlife Center of Virginia

The eaglet is doing fine after making the trip from Norfolk Bontanical Garden.

WAYNESBORO -- The eaglet removed from its nest at Norfolk Botanical Garden will get a CT scan of its head tonight, concentrating on the soft tissue mass on the left side of the upper beak. .

The baby was taken to Waynesboro Thursday for rehab of a growth on its bill and will have the scan in Fisherville at Augusta Medical Center. The eaglet is there tonight and will have the procedure Saturday, according to wildlife officials.

The eaglet will rehab at in its new home at the Wildlife Center of Virginia.

Officials emailed two photographs to 13News Friday morning show the eaglet after it was admitted to the facility. It's patient number 08-887 and has already gotten a preliminary physical examination.

The eagle weighed in at one kilogram and was in good body condition.  Fluids and antibiotics were given and the baby ate three mice.

Amanda Wells

This picture shows the eaglet in the bag after it was removed from the nest.

Those concerns forced the eaglet's removal from its nest Thursday.

Via the WVEC.com Eaglecam on Thursday, viewers watched its removal for examination by veterinarian Dr. Jonathan Sleeman with the Virginia Department of Game and Inland Fisheries.

With that first hand look, Dr. Sleeman said the growth has gotten much bigger and is now interfering with the breathing from its left nostril. He’s concerned the growth could soon interfere with its eating.

Blood and tissue samples taken Thursday will be tested to confirm a diagnosis, but Dr. Sleeman is confident it’s not Avian Pox. He wouldn’t speculate on what has caused the growth.

The samples are being sent to Southeast Cooperative Wildlife Disease Study center at the University of Georgia.  Results from that biopsy are not expected to be available until next week.

"Apart from the growth, the eaglet appeared otherwise healthy -- well fed, well feathered, fairly strong, active and alert," said Steve Living, a wildlife biologist with the Watchable Wildlife Program of the Va. Dept of Game and Inland Fisheries.

The eaglet was put in a transport box for the trip to the Wildlife Center of Virginia at Lyndhurst (near Waynesboro), where treatment will be started once a diagnosis is made.

"The center has extensive experience rehabbing eagles and they will be able to minimize the stress to the baby," explained Living, who is in his second year with this eagle project.

The baby eagle won't be coming back to its nest at the Garden.

"By the time of assessment and treatment, the parents won’t be in eaglet-rearing mode. We pretty much knew when he left that he’d be cared for by people,” Living acknowledged. 

It's being housed in a fake nest in a small enclosure at the rehab center.  The eaglet will be fed a mixture of cut-up mice and fish two to three times daily.

The eaglet is about three-and-a-half weeks old and won't reach fledge until eight to fourteen weeks.

The eaglet’s parents circled low as experts climbed into the tree to reach the nest.

Video: Eaglet removed from nest indefinitely

Larger screen

They kept watch during the examination, but didn’t approach the group.

Living says people don't need to be concerned about the baby being separated from the parents at such a young age.

"Wild animals, raptors, don’t have the kind of attachments that humans do. They tend to be fairly resilient.  I’m not discounting any bond, but they tend to move on and losing young isn’t uncommon,” noted Living.

He says the eagle family is really only strongly associated with each other for eight to 14 weeks. "They’re just not around each other that long," he stressed.

Officials say the adults will hang around several days before leaving the nesting site.

"Once they're acclimated to the fact that they don’t have any young, they'll resort to their normal, end-of-nesting season behavior," Living explained, adding they'll likely stay around the Garden.

This pair first built a nest at Norfolk Botanical Garden in the fall of 2003. They've previously successfully raised young - one in 2004, two in 2005, three in 2006 and three in 2007.

The three from 2007 were banded, so wildlife officials might be able to tell if an eagle in the area is one of them.

Living says it wouldn't be out of the question for young eagles to wander hundreds of miles from their birthplace.

"It's to the animal's benefit to disperse from their fledge area to keep the gene pool diverse," said Living.

This year's eaglet is the only one of five eggs that survived to hatch this breeding season.

WVEC.com EagleCam

The eaglet was removed from the nest Thursday morning.

Living says he'll track the eaglet's progress at the rehab center and will post updates on the Eagle blog.

Many EagleCam viewers are wondering what will happen to the camera now that the eaglet is out of the nest.

"We haven't determined exactly when the Web stream of the nest will be taken down, and we will be discussing this with our partners at NBG and DGIF," said WVEC.com Webmaster Pete McElveen. "The chat room will remain open because it's become so popular, and we're happy to have our eagle fans use our chat room any time they like."

In the meantime, the Virginia Wildlife Center says they will provide WVEC.com with photos showing the eaglet's progress in addition to providing updates on the condition of the bird.