Two young offspring of a beloved pair of bald eagles that have a nest in Standley Lake Regional Park are thought to have died this weekend, prompting an outpouring of sadness from bird watchers.

Observers noticed the parents feeding an eaglet on April 4. They were known to the nest-watching community as SL2 and SL3.

Researchers noticed this past weekend that the mother, F420, was feeding herself but not offering food to the nest, leading them to believe the eaglets are dead.

“It is with profound sadness that we share with all of you that the two eaglets (SL2 and SL3) at Standley Lake have perished,” read a message on Standley Lake Regional Park’s Facebook page. “A ground search was conducted in hopes of finding an eaglet carcass to submit for necropsy, but none was found. Without a carcass and the opportunity to do testing, there is no way for us to know how or why the eaglets died.”

Some speculated that because the parents appeared to be attentive to their offspring, that the avian flu may have been the culprit in the eaglets’ demise.

The Facebook page Standley Lake Eagles, which has 3,000 members, has followed the courtship of the bald eagle pair since F420 chased another female away from the male and took over. Members have agonized over high winds, early snows and extreme temperatures as they watched the Standley Lake eagle family soap opera over the last few years.

Standley Lake Regional Park posted a poignant photo showing the grieving bald eagle couple grieving on a branch just above their nest.

A bald eagle’s nest can reach 10 feet across, 13 feet deep and weigh up to 1,000 pounds.

For those grieving the loss of SL2 and SL3, all is not lost. A pair of bald eaglets that hatched on April 11 and 13 in the St. Vrain nest are alive, fuzzy and enjoying a warm April. On Monday, a whole fish could be seen in the nest waiting to be eaten. The St. Vrain nest, located in Platteville, Colorado, has two cameras trained on it maintained by Xcel Energy.

According to Colorado Parks and Wildlife, there are 90 breeding pairs of bald eagles from Denver to the Wyoming state line. The bald eagle is still protected by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Protection Act but the species was delisted from the Endangered Species Act in 2007. Parks and Wildlife classified the bald eagle as a Tier 2 “Species of Greatest Conservation Need.”

Two young offspring of a beloved pair of bald eagles that have a nest in Standley Lake Regional Park are thought to have died this weekend, prompting an outpouring of sadness from bird watchers.

The eaglets, known as SL2 and SL3, started showing their heads above the rim of the nest on April 4.

Researchers noticed that the mother, F420, was feeding herself but not offering food to the nest, leading them to believe the eaglets are dead.

“It is with profound sadness that we share with all of you that the two eaglets (SL2 and SL3) at Standley Lake have perished,” read a message on Standley Lake Regional Park’s Facebook page. “A ground search was conducted in hopes of finding an eaglet carcass to submit for necropsy, but none was found. Without a carcass and the opportunity to do testing, there is no way for us to know how or why the eaglets died.”

Some speculated that because the parents appeared to be attentive to their offspring, that the avian flu may have been the culprit in the eaglets’ demise.

The Facebook page Standley Lake Eagles, which has 3,000 members, has followed the courtship of the bald eagle pair since F420 chased another female away from the male and took over. Members have agonized over high winds, early snows and extreme temperatures as they watched the Standley Lake eagle family soap opera over the last few years.

Standley Lake Regional Park posted a poignant photo showing the grieving bald eagle couple grieving on a branch just above their nest.

A bald eagle’s nest can reach 10 feet across, 13 feet deep and weigh up to 1,000 pounds.

For those grieving the loss of SL2 and SL3, all is not lost. A pair of bald eaglets that hatched on April 11 and 13 in the St. Vrain nest are alive, fuzzy and enjoying a warm April. On Monday, a whole fish could be seen in the nest waiting to be eaten. The St. Vrain nest, located in Platteville, Colorado, has two cameras trained on it maintained by Xcel Energy.

According to Colorado Parks and Wildlife, there are 90 breeding pairs of bald eagles from Denver to the Wyoming state line. The bald eagle is still protected by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Protection Act but the species was delisted from the Endangered Species Act in 2007. Parks and Wildlife classified the bald eagle as a Tier 2 “Species of Greatest Conservation Need.”