PHOENIX -  A rescued eaglet is back in the wild today, thanks to the efforts of Arizona Game and Fish Department biologists, volunteers at Liberty Wildlife Rehabilitation in Scottsdale, and two vigilant eagle nest watchers who've been camping out to protect its nest.

Game and Fish biologist Kenneth "Tuk" Jacobson places a rehabilitated eaglet into a nest high up on a cliff outside Clarkdale.

The bald eaglet, which is now about 13 weeks old, fell out of its nest near Sycamore Canyon outside Clarkdale last month. Two eagle nest watchers under contract with the Arizona Game and Fish Department were already camped out in the area to monitor and protect eagle breeding attempts. They called in biologists for a rescue, and when the crew arrived, they found the eaglet to be dehydrated and undernourished.

"This eaglet needed supplemental feeding and special care," says Kenneth "Tuk" Jacobson, a Game and Fish eagle biologist. "Its parents were apparently not providing enough food to keep the nestling healthy, so we brought the bird to Liberty Wildlife for extra attention."

The eaglet has been doing much better, since it was taken to the rehabilitation center in Scottsdale. Volunteers there gave it round-the-clock care and plenty to eat.

"It chowed down on everything we gave it," says Megan Mosby, executive director of Liberty Wildlife Rehabilitation. "We concentrated mostly on foods that would fatten the nestling back up."

With the eaglet looking healthy again, Game and Fish eagle biologists placed it back into its nest high up on a cliff. One of the biologists rappelled down the cliff face to deposit the nestling back where it belongs. Nest watchers in the area will provide supplemental feeding of fish to the eaglet until it's ready to fly on its own.

Arizona currently has 42 breeding pairs of bald eagles. The Arizona Bald Eagle Nestwatch Program helps monitor bald eagle breeding areas that are under heavy pressure from human recreational activities. Contracted nest watchers sleep in a tent on-and-off for four months to help ensure new eaglets' survival. The program has saved the lives of 46 eagle nestlings since it began in 1978. That's equal to about 10 percent of all the eagles that have lived to fly on their own in Arizona since the program started.