Bird’s eye view: Live nature on the web

Bald Eagle by Jörg Hempel/Creative Commons

WARNING: Live wildlife webcams can become addictive. It starts with the occasional distracted departure from an important budget spreadsheet to ‘quickly check the cam’ but ends in many sleepless nights hunched in front of the screen hoping to catch a glimpse of some extraordinary animal behaviour.

There is something intoxicating about live wildlife webcams as they provide a fascinating window into the inner workings of the natural world, giving us the chance to see behaviours and interactions that would ordinarily remain hidden to the human eye.

So when I was recently introduced to a live video stream from a bald eagle nest (a massive nest at that; it weighs in at one and a half tons!), watching these amazing raptors quickly became a regular pastime. The camera is mounted 24 metres (80 feet) above the ground in a cottonwood tree in Iowa and is managed by the Raptor Resource Project, a group that specializes in the preservation of falcons, eagles, ospreys, hawks, and owls. They have been following the progress of this mating pair since 2007 and have watched as the birds successfully hatched and fledged eight eaglets.

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This streaming live feed has proven remarkably successful and I’m definitely not the only one who enjoys a bit of avian voyeurism. Last year the site recorded more than 325,000 unique visitors. And this year’s footage promises to be even better following a camera upgrade with a zoom function enabling viewers to actually see the eggs cracking as they begin to hatch. We’ve embedded the live feed above to make sure you don’t miss any of the action!