THIS is the adorable moment a newly hatched rare eagle chick was fed for the first time - after wildlife specialists successfully bred the only mating pair in Britain.

The feisty little Steller’s Sea Eagle hatched at the National Centre for Birds of Prey in Helmsley, delighting conservationists.

The species, which is native to Kamchatka Peninsula, in Far East Russia, is considered “globally threatened and vulnerable”, with only around 5,000 left in the wild.

Charlie Heap, director of the bird sanctuary, said his team was “living the dream” after their adult female, Inowashi, 13, produced two eggs this spring.

He said: “It’s the best thing ever. We’ve had a couple of false starts along the way, and I was forced to wait quite a long time. But it’s a real living the dream moment, and we’re achieving ambitions to be doing things like this. It’s amazing – just perfect!”

The sea eagle is one of the largest birds of prey – weighing as much as 20lb (9kg) when fully grown and boasting a wingspan of up to 8ft (245cm).

But Charlie explained that the magnificent looking birds are in decline as their native habitat is shrinking due to oil drilling off the coast of Siberia, Russia.

He said: “They live in a range that is thousands of miles long, but it's only hundreds of miles wide, so they are extraordinarily vulnerable to change and disturbance.”

“We’ve all seen the things on TV with oil spills and what have you – that could be a species extinction event for birds like this.”

The sea eagles were bred as part of a European wide programme to increase the numbers held in captivity.

Charlie explained: “It’s really important that every zoo breeds the species that they hold to enlarge the captive population and the captive gene pool."