Eaglet pics and gender speculations

The SWFL eaglets are both six weeks old today. Here's E20 (center of the image) and E19 (corner) this morning, waiting for breakfast together. The rest of the post is screenshots from the past couple of days (warning that the screenshots again show prey).

 

Both eaglets working on trying to self-feed from fish leftovers. E19 higher on screen.

E20 has had enough of their fish piece, but E19 still wants to gnaw on it some. Harriet returned to the nest soon after this screenshot with some grass bedding, and fed both eaglets using these leftovers.

Harriet at the nest, E20 (higher) and E19 beaking.

E20 preens E19 a bit.

 

E20, E19.

E20 sleeping with beak tucked into back feathers like a big eagle.

And E20 guarding fish leftovers like a dragon sitting on its hoard.

E19 resting, E20 trying to get bites out of an armoured catfish armour.

E20, E19, resting at the nest rails the next day.

E19 standing tall.

Harriet at the attic branch, E20 (left) and E19 (next to the trunk and less visible) at the nest, all watching their surroundings.

E20 dozing on the left, E19 looking up at mom.

E19 closeups.

Even closer!

E20 didn't want to lift their head for their closeup, but that gives us a good look at the mix of different kinds of feathers at the back of their head and neck. Wispy, dandelion-like natal down still hanging on in sparse patches; fluffy, grey thermal down also still showing; and dark brown pennaceous feathers well on their way to covering that.

E19, E20.

And back to this morning, both sleeping with beak tucked. E19 closer to center of the nest.

 

The eaglets are not at their full size yet, but their size difference persists, with E19 being larger. E19 also seems to have a proportionally larger and broader beak. Maybe it's early to say for sure (and we can't ever say for completely sure without a DNA test), but I would not be surprised if E19 is female and E20 male. Eagles are not very obviously sexually dimorphic, as evidenced by the parents' identical plumage (other than small details particular to that individual), but female eagles are larger, and have bigger beaks.

It would fit E19's more aggressive temperament, too, though how much of that is due to being the older eaglet in the clutch is again hard to say for certain. Older eaglets that are male enforce a pecking order, too, but female eagles are generally more aggressive even as babies, and as adults when it comes time to form a pair bond, the male is submissive to the female.

 

The 2021 fledglings, E17 (front) and E18.

In last season's clutch, I'm pretty sure the older eaglet E17 is male, and the younger E18 female, and maybe that (along with their less-than-two-hour age difference) contributed to their evenly matched sibling rivalry in their early days, with E18 giving as good as she got instead of submitting. E17 really only got particularly aggressive in the couple of weeks where that's the norm for the older eaglet anyway, and even then mostly on the day they were returned to the nest after spending a week at the wildlife hospital, because during that week Harriet and M had gotten out of the habit of caring for chicks, and it took them until the next morning for "must feed the babies!" mode to kick in again (they handled their other parently duties well immediately upon reunion, and the chicks had been fed at the hospital just before the renesting, but small raptor chicks get hungry quickly and hangry quicker). E19 still gives E20 the occasional bonk, which is not out of the ordinary, but is more ordinary for a female older eaglet.