Eagles Hatch, Millions Watch

The Iowa-based Rap­tor Resource Project works to fos­ter pop­u­la­tion growth among threat­ened bird pop­u­la­tions through­out the mid­west. They man­age 23 nests, edu­cate oth­ers in nest-site man­age­ment, and — best of all for those liv­ing far from the wilder­ness — main­tain sev­er­al web­cams at their sites. You can fol­low sev­er­al fam­i­lies online, includ­ing fal­cons, owls and osprey.

But the most pop­u­lar live stream keeps track of these bald eagles in Dec­o­rah, Iowa. While we were typ­ing up this post, we had the stream up in anoth­er win­dow: Along with about 90,000 oth­er view­ers, we watched one of the eagles shel­ter­ing three eaglets from a strong wind, 80 feet high in the snow-cov­ered nest. The oth­er was pre­sum­ably out hunt­ing. (The RRP’s blog has a nice expla­na­tion of how the par­ents pro­tect their young from cold and snow, both in the moment and through smart nest design.) The video above shows the 24-hour hatch­ing of their first egg, on April 1st and April 2nd, edit­ed down to just 10 min­utes.

Sheer­ly Avni is a San Fran­cis­co-based arts and cul­ture writer. Her work has appeared in Salon, LA Week­ly, Moth­er Jones, and many oth­er pub­li­ca­tions. You can fol­low her on twit­ter at @sheerly.