A mother Bald eagle watches as one of her three eggs hatches Friday afternoon at its nest in Pittsburgh.

PITTSBURGH — The first of three Bald Eagle eggs under the watchful eye of many in Western Pennsylvania hatched Friday evening.

Bob Mulvihill, an ornithologist with the National Aviary in Pittsburgh, said the egg began hatching about 10:30 a.m. Thursday.

“It can be a long process,” he said of the hatching. “It isn’t like popping a lid off an egg.”

The eagle’s nest overlooks the Monongahela River in the Hays neighborhood.

Mulvihill watched as the hatchling slowly broke through the egg throughout Friday until it was finally free from its shell.

“It was dried-out looking fuzzy and cute,” Mulvihill said, adding it was not possible to know the gender of the chick this early.

The egg began hatching a couple days late according to the bird’s typical 35 day incubation period. Some feared it meant the first egg did not survive, and the eaglet born was from the second egg.

Mulvihill said there is no way of knowing that.

“That doesn’t really mean anything,” Mulvihill said. “Just that it was on the later side of the average.”

The next two eggs are expected to hatch in two day cycles, although Mulvihill warned the majority of third hatchlings do not survive.

“They’re a lot smaller than the first two eggs,” he said. “Only a fraction of the last hatchlings survive.”

The success on Friday marks the second consecutive year the eagles in Hays successfully produced a hatchling.

Eaglets typically spend at least two months in the nest.

The mother eagle is still sitting on the two eggs and covering the hatchling.

The next egg could begin to hatch Sunday.

Bald eagle pairs are active on two additional sites in Allegheny County. More than 200 nests have been reported in Pennsylvania.

The wait for the births has captured the interest of many Western Pennsylvanians because of a camera that has been trained on the nest around the clock.

The video had more than 877,000 total views as of Saturday morning.

To get a look at the nest, go to the Butler Eagle website, www.butlereagle.com, and look for the link “The Pittsburgh Eagle Cam” on the right side of the home page.

The live-stream camera of the nest is provided by Murrysville-based PixController, which is working with the Pennsylvania Game Commission.