- (Credit: Ustream)
Thousands watched last year as a pair of Bald Eagles looked on as their eggs hatched.
According to Extraordinaryintelligence.com, the pair were residents of a giant nest located 80-feet atop a tree at a fish hatchery in Decorah, Iowa.
This year, there is another eaglet that is getting ready to hatch. According to Wired, “The bald eaglet will probably take at least 12 hours, and possibly as many as 48 hours to break completely free from its shell. The first chick will have a head start on its siblings and will likely enjoy being the biggest eaglet in the nest for months.”
Once the baby birds are born they tend to look frail and delicate, but that is normal for eaglets.
Raptorresource.blogspot.com explains, “The birds grow very rapidly and according to Gary R Bortolotti, bald eagles may gain more weight per day than any other bird in North America. As in other animals, different body parts may reach adult size at different times. The growth of the legs will be complete about half-way through the nesting period, but the beak and flight feathers won’t reach adult size until after the eaglets have fledged, or left the nest. In fact, an eagle’s juvenile flight feathers are longer than its adult flight feathers, which it won’t get until it is 3 – 4 years old.”
Watching baby eagles hatch has turned into quite the rage. As of Monday, the eagle cam had over 4 millions views and over 52,000 current views.
Currently, the Decorah bald eagle is still sitting on three eggs and one of their beaks has already broken through one of the eggs. Viewers of the live streaming video can expect to see a baby bird shortly.
Check out the video and maybe you’ll be able to catch an eaglet being born!
