One of the Decorah eaglets is fitted with a tracking bracelet

One of Decorah's three bald eaglets has been banded and fitted with a GPS transmitter that could enable scientists to track its whereabouts for years to come

Volunteers from Raptor Resource Project on Tuesday banded a young female eaglet and placed a transmitter on her.  Afterward, RRP posted a statement to its Facebook page:

"RRP decided to band the eaglets to help us determine where they go and whether or not they survive. Initially, we were only going to band one eagle. However, following today's success, we have decided to try to band more of them. We don't know whether we will end up banding and transmitting all of the eagles or not. We will see what happens in the weeks to come. Banding has yielded a great deal of valuable scientific information on bird migration, survivability, and reproductive success. Bands and transmitters help us protect important bird areas (witness Audubon's IBA program), identify threats, and determine the health of a species as a whole.

"We did not make this decision lightly. We determined early on that we would not band the young in the nest, since we didn't feel we could get to the nest without jeopardizing the eaglets. Once we decided to band and transmitter young after fledging, we involved an eagle biologist with years of experience in banding and trapping young and adult eagles. Bob researched banding very carefully, and was not able to find any evidence that banding affected the survivability or reproductive success of eagles – a finding supported by our own years of banding young falcons.

"Rob MacIntyre would not have disapproved of today's actions – indeed, we wish he could have been there, since he would have loved it. He was very active in our falcon banding program, was the lead designer on the falcon backpack cam used in RaptorForce, and worked with Italian bird and raptor groups to promote falcon banding in that country.

We understand that people are concerned about the eagles and our motivation for banding. However, at our core, we have always been about science, conservation, and education. Banding the eaglet will not harm it and will aid the service of all three areas.  We understand the reservations among those of you who are expressing them, and we did consider this very carefully. We were not able to find evidence of the transmitter getting caught, the battery corroding, or the eagles failing to secure mates - something that several of you have asked about."