Famous Fort Myers Eagle E9 fledged from its nest for the first time Tuesday morning, but it was a rocky take off.
An eagle cam over the nest at Dick Pritchett Real Estate in North Fort Myers caught the moment E9 appeared to fledge from the nest, and fall through several branches.
In a YouTube video, showing a different angle of the moment, E9 can be seen falling from the tree and appears to fly off before hitting the ground.
Marti Lord witnessed the entire moment during a rare morning visit to see the nest along Bayshore Road.
"I was like, 'oh my god!' it was the most amazing thing," said Lord.
Experts believe what happened was an accidental fledge. Lord took dozens of pictures of E9 as his parents Harriet and M-15 looked over the young bird after the fall. One photo shows an eagle parent carrying a fish to the eaglet.
E9's gender hasn't been determined, but Lord believe it’s a girl.
"She jumped out onto the branch that's right out above the nest, and started flapping again, and she kind of fell right underneath the nest and tried to claw her way back up. I thought she was going to make it," said Lord.
The eagle cam directly over the nest doesn't show what happened next, but luckily Lord had a birds eye view.
"Then she started tumbling down, and I'd say about three-quarters of the way down I was holding my breath, I didn't want her to fall, and she just flew, just glided right across the road and landed right here in the field," said Lord.
E9 was seen flying around after the fall and didn't appear to be hurt, but Lord says she won't stop worrying about the young bird until its back in its nest.
"I'm worried but i know he'll be okay because mom is there and i'll be back in the morning to find out what's going on," said Lord.
