Isle Of Wight White-Tailed Eagle Project Update As Record Numbers Fledged Across UK

A record three white-tailed eagle chicks have successfully fledged from two wild nests in England as the projects based on the Isle of Wight and in Sussex continue to prosper.

The chicks were reared by white-tailed eagles released in a ground breaking conservation project by Forestry England and the Roy Dennis Wildlife Foundation to return this lost species to England.

To date, 45 young white-tailed eagles have been released.

This includes eight birds released this summer from the team’s base on the Isle of Wight.

The reintroduction of white-tailed eagles is conducted under licence from Natural England, the Government’s wildlife licensing authority.

Birds for release are collected from wild nests in Scotland under licence from NatureScot before being transported to England with valuable support from Civil Air Support.

The birds are subsequently reared and released on the Isle of Wight, all birds released by the project are fitted with satellite tags. 

White-tailed eagles are a protected species under the Wildlife and Countryside Act (1981).

Disturbing, destroying or interfering with them and their nests are criminal offences.

The specific locations of this year’s nests are not being disclosed for the welfare of the birds and to prevent any disturbance to them or the landowner this year or if the birds return to breed at the same location.

Two different pairs of white-tailed eagles successfully bred this year.

This included the first chick in Dorset for over 240 years, and two chicks raised in a nest in Sussex.

A single male chick (G834) fledged from a nest in Dorset. The parent birds - G463 and G466 released in 2020 - settled in the county and paired up in 2023.

This is their first successful breeding attempt and made more remarkable by the fact that the male adult bird has only one leg after it lost this four years ago.

Two chicks, both females (G841 and G842), fledged this year from a nest in Sussex.

Both are the offspring of two white-tailed eagles released by the project in 2020. The parent birds - G405 and G471 – were the same pairing that bred in 2023 and 2024.

This year’s successful breeding brings the number of these iconic birds born in the wild through the project to six.

In 2023 a single chick was born, the first in England since the eighteenth century when the species was lost due to persecution. A further two chicks were born in the summer of 2024. 

All of the chicks are fitted with satellite tags so that the project team can track their progress. Over the last year they have used satellite data to follow the fledglings as they have explored widely across the UK. 

White-tailed eagles typically reach breeding maturity at around four or five years old.

Roy Dennis OBE, Founder of the Roy Dennis Wildlife Foundation, said:

“We are delighted to see another year of successful breeding and that two pairs have now reached this key stage.

"This is a long-term project, and it will take some years before the population is fully restored but the progress made over the last year has been incredibly encouraging.

"We have some well-established pairs and two that are actively breeding.

"We hope to build on this progress, and I’m really pleased that we have been able to release an additional 8 birds this year to further boost the population.

“I always find it particularly rewarding to see so much support for these magnificent birds and the positive impact they are having on so many people’s relationship with the natural world.”

White-tailed eagles are Britain’s largest birds of prey with a wingspan of up to 2.5 metres and were once widespread across England.

Human persecution caused their extinction, with the last pair breeding in southern England in 1780.

In 2019, Forestry England and the Roy Dennis Wildlife Foundation began reintroducing these iconic birds to the English landscape.