A fuzzy white eaglet hatched from one of three eggs in an eagle nest in Pittsburgh’s Hays neighborhood just after 3 a.m. Tuesday.
The eaglet’s arrival was caught by a live webcam operated by PixCams of Murrysville and the Audubon Society of Western Pennsylvania.
This is the ninth breeding season for a pair of bald eagles that have nested on the same steep Hays hillside above the Monongahela River and a bustling scrap yard, rail lines, roads and the Three Rivers Heritage Trail.
Tuesday’s hatchling is the couple’s 13th eaglet.
Observers spotted a pip — a hole in the egg made by the eaglet — on Sunday. It can take up to two days for an egg to hatch after an eaglet breaks its eggshell with a special egg tooth, according to the Raptor Resource Project.
The other two eggs could hatch during the week. In recent years, two out of three eggs laid by the Hays female eagle have hatched.
The parents will take turns brooding the eggs and feeding and keeping the young eaglet warm around-the-clock. The young bird is not old enough to regulate its body temperature, according to the Pennsylvania Game Commission, which provided a special permit for the live webcam on the Hays nest.
The adults will bring food for the eaglet to the nest, oftentimes a fish. The adults tear their catch of the day into small pieces and feed it to the eaglet, said Audubon spokeswoman Rachel Handel.
It’s been 39 days since the female eagle laid the first egg and 36 days since she laid the second, Handel said. Bald eagle eggs typically take between 35 to 38 days to hatch.
