The first confirmed birth of a white-tailed eagle in Co Waterford for over 150 years has taken place.<\/p>\n
The chick is the result of the White-Tailed Eagle Reintroduction Programme, run by the National Parks and Wildlife Service (NPWS).<\/p>\n
The programme has been in place since 2007 and aims to restore the white-tailed eagle to Ireland.<\/p>\n
The species was once widespread but was driven to extinction more than 100 years ago due to human activity.<\/p>\n
Watch: Rare footage of white-tailed eagle in Waterford<\/p>\n
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Project Manager Eamonn Meskell estimated that a white-tailed eagle was last seen in Waterford around 1870.<\/p>\n
The birth is “hugely significant”, he said, as the chick’s parents moved there, rather than being introduced in the region.<\/p>\n
“Generally, the eagles’ migration has been north and west. So to see a pair migrate to Waterford proves that the project is working.”<\/p>\n
Speaking on RT\u00c9’s Morning Ireland, Mr Meskell added that it is the first birth on the eastern side of the River Shannon since the project began.<\/p>\n
He was in the original NPWS team that went to Norway to bring the first white-tailed eagles to Ireland as part of the programme.<\/p>\n
Mr Meskell said that finding and organising sites to release the birds is a “huge process”, but news of new chicks being hatched gives “a sense of satisfaction out of it”.<\/p>\n
The parents, known as K and L, are raising their chick on the lower River Blackwater, north of Youghal in Co Cork.<\/p>\n
K and L were released from a site on the river, on the Waterford-Cork border, in 2021 and have been monitored since then.<\/p>\n