Empty nest for M15

May 19, 2026 By CHUCK BALLARO 3 min read

With family-raising season in the review, Southwest Florida’s most famous eagle nest is empty once again.

After nearly four months of nurturing from its parents, this year’s Southwest Florida Eagle cam star, E26, has flown from the nest on Bayshore Road to start its life as a free-flying juvenile.

It wasn’t easy. The eaglet had to make do without its mother, F23, who presumably died in late February, just before E26 was about to fledge.

The death of the female leaves a lot of questions moving forward, especially for the cam that has an international following in the millions. For the last 14 seasons, the 24/7 live cam focused on the nest on the Pritchett property in North Fort Myers has shown nature at its most real, from the hatching of new eaglets to deaths in the wild.

But with M15, the male half of the parental pair, once again without a mate the question is, will he bring a female back to the nest near Eagle Landing or find a new place to raise his next brood?

Virginia Pritchett-McSpadden, founder of the eagle cam, said the next few months are going to be quite interesting after watching E26, which was the lone eaglet after a second egg failed to hatch, successfully leave the nest.

“We last saw the eaglet on April 17 and he/she was about 120 days old, which is about normal for the last flight in the area and take that big leap to venturing beyond,” Pritchett-McSpadden said. “We hope the eaglet is learning beyond the nest area and flourishing.”

Pritchett-McSpadden said they have seen M15 around the nest here and there, including briefly a couple of weeks ago where he landed in the nest.

“It is a bit of unknown territory. Time will tell what happens with M15. We’ve seen a visiting female eagle and we hope to see the bonding tendencies happen, but in the summer, we see them less frequently,” Pritchett-McSpadden said. “We’ll see in the next few months if he’s bonded.”

The future of the eagle cam, which was founded in 2012, could depend on whether M15 returns with a mate who likes the nest. Pritchett-McSpadden said they also could build somewhere else.

“We’re in flux and in an unknown area right now. We’d have to see what options there are. It would be a different era for the cam,” Pritchett-McSpadden said. “Great-horned owls are in the area and they like established nests. We could see their activity if the eagles don’t return. Time will tell.”

M15 has spent the last six or seven years here. Pritchett-McSpadden said she hopes he returns to the tree with a new mate so the eagle cam can continue.

The egg that became M26 was laid on Nov. 12, 2025 and hatched on Dec. 18. The eaglet branched on Feb. 26, just one day before M23 went missing, and fledged on March 10, on its 82nd day of life.

For more information, go to dickpritchettrealestate.com 

To reach CHUCK BALLARO, please email news@breezenewspapers.com