FREEDOM & FAITHFUL SPIRIT
FREEDOM (Right): Species: Haliaeetus leucocephalus, Bald Eagle • Hatched: 1994 • Died 2020 • Gender: Male
FAITHFUL SPIRIT (Left): Species: Haliaeetus leucocephalus, Bald Eagle • Hatched: 1990 • Gender: Female
Faithful Spirit now resides in Eagle Mountain Sanctuary with other non-releasable Bald Eagles.
Freedom and Faithful Spirit were a bonded non-releasable pair of Bald Eagles that lived in a large private aviary at the American Eagle Foundation. They hatched and raised numerous young as a part of the AEF’s Captive Breeding and Hacking programs.
This pair was already bonded when they were transferred to the American Eagle Foundation from the San Francisco Zoo in 2007. In a ceremony honoring fallen soldiers, these two Eagles, along with three other non-releasable Bald Eagle breeding pairs were named by the families of these brave soldiers.
Freedom was named in honor of Sgt. Paul Thomason. Faithful Spirit was named in honor of Sgt. Daniel Morris.
In 2007, the American Eagle Foundation was chosen by the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service to receive four Bald Eagle breeding pairs from the San Francisco Zoo to care, originally it was to be five pairs, however one mate passed away prior to the transfer. The living mate of the pair is now a educational eagle.
These pairs were part of the San Francisco Zoo’s captive-breeding program. These regal birds had previously hatched numerous young eaglets, which were placed in wild nests located on the Channel Islands—as part of a Bald Eagle recovery project located off the coast of Los Angeles. The zoo concluded its successful breeding program after re-introducing more than 100 young Bald Eagles into the wild.
The Eagle pairs flew over America—from San Francisco to Knoxville—on the wings of a special FedEx cargo jet on June 18 and 19 2007. After a physical check-up by University of Tennessee veterinarians, these eagles were placed into their new aviary homes in the foothills of the Great Smoky Mountains.
ABOUT BALD EAGLES
Bald Eagles typically mate for life. They will only look for a new mate if their faithful companion dies. Together, they build huge nests known as ‘aeries’ atop tall and strong trees. They make use of twigs, grasses, soft mosses, and feathers in making their nests.
They normally return to the same nest during breeding season, adding new materials to it each year. A new eagle pair’s nest measures about five feet in width and two feet in depth, but as they add to it year after year, it can reach widths of over ten feet and weigh up to a ton or more.