Baby Bald Eagles Will Hatch on Live Webcam
- By Lisa Grossman
- March 29, 2011 |
- 2:46 pm |
- Categories: Animals
Three bald eagles are expected to hatch in Decorah, Iowa, between March 30 and April 1 — and you can watch it happen.
Two new cameras positioned above the eagles’ nest provide an unprecedentedly clear window into eagle domestic life. The expectant parents built their nest 80 feet up a cottonwood tree near the Decorah Fish Hatchery in 2007, and all 8 of their children have entered the world under a filmmaker’s gaze.
But the new cameras, plus a computer upgrade, will bring a sharper view to more people than ever before. One camera runs automatically and streams footage of the nest 24/7, switching to infrared at night. The other is remotely controlled from a nearby equipment shed, where bird conservation expert Bob Anderson, executive director of the non-profit Raptor Resource Project, will pan, tilt and zoom in on the nest.
According to Anderson, viewers will be able to see tiny cracks lacing through the eggs before they hatch. The zoomed-in view gets so close, you can count the scales on the eagles’ feet.
The mother eagle laid the eggs on Feb. 23, Feb. 26 and March 2. All three were caught on camera and are up on YouTube.
Last year, the eaglecam received more than 325,000 unique visitors from 125 countries. All the attention maxed out the bandwidth of nearby Luther College, which had been hosting the site.
The eagle family made their cinematic debut in a 2008 PBS documentary called “American Eagle.”
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Lisa is a Wired Science contributor based loosely in Seattle, Washington.Follow @astrolisa and @wiredscience on Twitter.
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