Every afternoon like clockwork we’d watch this female bald eagle emerge from her nest outside Seward, Alaska, to wait for her errant partner to return with food for the family. We rarely saw the male or the two eaglets whose heads would only sometimes pop above the rim of the nest, but we could always count on mama to take this same afternoon perch.

We’re told that bald eagles mate for life and return to the same nest year after year. Each breeding season the couple adds to their home and builds the largest tree nests of any animal. The nests grow so large, up to a metric ton in weight, that they’ve been known to take down the tree in which they’re built. Fitting, wouldn’t you say?