An Unusual Family Of Bald Eagles Adds 3 Eaglets

You can tell Tolstoy that not every happy family is alike after all.

Along the Mississippi River in Illinois lives an unusual family of six bald eagles. Two males and one female are caring for three eaglets — with the world watching on a livestream.

The two males, Valor I and Valor II, and the female, Starr, have been together since 2017, in the backwaters of the Upper Mississippi River National Wildlife and Fish Refuge.

Earlier that year the males' first partner, Hope, disappeared after a violent attack by other eagles. But the males stayed together and courted Starr, which experts say is a remarkable twist to an already unusual situation — bald eagle trios have been documented before, but rarely, according to the Audubon Society.

The birds saw three eggs hatch this year at the end of March and the beginning of April.