You can see eagles at butlereagle.com
The public has the chance again this year to livestream two bald eagles that are incubating eggs in Allegheny County.
A mother eagle laid an egg Sunday in a nest along the Allegheny River in Harmar Township.
Another nest is located along the Monongahela River in the Hays neighborhood of Pittsburgh. The eagle there laid eggs on Feb. 13, 15 and 19.
The cameras are set up and operated by PixController, a company based in Westmoreland County. Live streams of both nests can be viewed around the clock online at butlereagle.com.
The company has installed cameras and offered live streams every year since 2014 when it first had a camera pointed at the Hays nest. The Harmar camera started in 2016 and was moved into a new position closer to the nest this year, said Bill Powers, PixController CEO.
The Harmar eagle was expected to lay another egg Tuesday or Wednesday.
The live video, which is hosted on YouTube, can be rewound allowing viewers to see the egg laying or other highlights, Powers said.
“We can tell when the egg laying starts and is finishing. You will see her push her wings down and her butt comes up and after she lays it she will get up and spin around,” Powers said.
The eagles have laid two or three eggs each year and have raised young before releasing them into the wild. They are not banded, so their fate is unknown.
“The parents will tolerate them for a few months and then they will kick them out of the area,” Powers said.
Unlike the Hays camera, which is powered by solar panels and battery power, the Harmar camera is wired in, meaning it can provide an uninterrupted feed 24 hours a day, Powers said.
The eagles are expected to incubate the eggs for about 35 days, meaning the first egg in the Hays nest should hatch around March 20 and the first egg in the Harmar nest would hatch around April 1.
