EagleCam
Welcome to our EagleCam Partnership with Duke Farms.
Bald Eagles are extremely sensitive to human disturbance. At no time should anyone approach nesting eagles. People who want to observe or photograph eagles and who come too close may actually cause the birds to abandon a nest.
Located on Duke Farms in central New Jersey, the EagleCam allows viewers an up close and personal view into the lives of a pair of bald eagles as they breed, incubate, and raise young. It is a perfect tool for teaching about wildlife and covers a variety of topics including animal behavior, bird biology and natural history, endangered species, food webs, contamination, and MORE!
Educators, click here for lesson plans and activites!
Eagle Updates
7/27/2010
The eagle cam has been off air since both of the young produced this year have fledged. We hope to have a video from this year's banding online soon. Stay tuned!
6/30/2010
The eagle cam remains running as the chicks still put in an occasional appearance at the nest. Once this activity stops the camera will be turned off.
Happy July 4th!
6/22/2010 Final Update
Both chicks fledged over the weekend. They will remain in the nest area for the next few weeks and will return to the nest from time to time. The eagle cam will be turned off this Friday since there will be little activity at the nest anymore.
This concludes another successful nesting season for the Duke Farms eagle pair. The fledglings will have a lot of obstacles ahead of them but hopefully they will return to the area to nest once they reach sexual maturity at five years of age.
The Duke Farms pair has been nesting since 2005 and has raised and fledged a total of 12 chicks in the past six years.
We look forward to the 2011 nesting season.
6/21/2010
Both chicks have fledged!
6/17/2010
One of the chicks took its first short flight today! It was perched on a branch to the right of the nest tree. The chicks are almost twelve weeks of age. The chicks will continue to take practice flights close to the nest until they gain enough strength to venture out for longer distances. So far 15 chicks have fledged from NJ eagle nests this season.
This can be the most difficult time for young eagles: learning to fly and land safely, then learning to soar on the wind and use thermals (rising warm air that can lift birds up), and learning to hunt and get food for themselves. It’s a lot to learn. Their parents will keep close watch over them for the two months after fledging.
6/4/2010
The chicks are now 10 weeks old and soon they will be taking their first flight.
The camera has been zoomed out which gives you a better view of the entire nest. The chicks are very active and have begun branching and flapping their wings in practice for their first flight. They are also tearing at food and feeding themselves.
NJ Eagle Fact: Both adults in the Duke Farms pair are NJ banded birds. Fourteen other pairs of eagles nesting in NJ have been reported to have at least one NJ banded bird in the pair.
5/18/2010
The chicks are now seven and a half weeks old. Over the next few weeks the chicks will start to “branch,” which means they’ll hop from the nest to the branches of the nest tree. The next step will be taking short flights to nearby branches and trees as they gain strength and courage. Eagles fledge between 11 and 12 weeks of age, but will remain in the area of the nest tree for several weeks after fledging, while they practice flight and learn to hunt.
The first NJ eagle chick of 2010 has fledged from the Manasquan Reservoir nest. This pair started incubating in early January.
Bald Eagle Fact: Bald eagles do not have white heads and tails until their fourth to fifth year which is when they reach sexual maturity. Until then immature eagles will have several different plumages and are variably patterned with dark brown and white.
5/13/2010
The chicks were banded on Monday morning. Measurements taken during the banding tell us that they are both females. The measurements also show that the birds are very close in age, only a little over a day apart. There is very little size difference between these two chicks unlike last year’s 3 chicks when the size difference was quite obvious. The older of the two chicks has a green band on her right leg and silver on her left. The youngest has the green band on the left leg and the silver band on the right leg. You can easily see the bands when the birds are walking around the nest.
The chicks can be seen stretching their wings, flapping and hopping around the nest. These activities help to strengthen the muscles they’ll soon need for flight. When they do this you can see that they still have downy feathers underneath. The adults continue to feed the chicks but the chicks are also picking up pieces of food and attempting to tear at the prey themselves. Today the adult came to the nest with a fish and ate while one of the chicks watched intently. Instead of feeding the chick, the adult dropped pieces of food in the nest for the chick to pick up. When the adult left both chicks pecked at the fish, soon they will be feeding themselves.
5/7/2010
The banding of the eagle chicks will take place next week.
Endangered and Nongame Species Program Principal Zoologist, Mick Valent will be climbing the nest tree. Once Mick is tied-in the nest, he will use a long pole with a hook to gently make the eaglets walk toward him. He will then place a hood on their head to calm them down and vet wrap on their feet to keep them from hurting themselves or one of the biologists. He will place one eaglet at a time in a duffel bag and lower it to the ground with a secure rope to the waiting banding team. Each eaglet will be lowered to the ground in this manner and returned when finished.
Eagle camera viewers will not see the actual banding activity on the ground, but the work will be videotaped and photographed and these pictures will be available at a later date.
Once the eaglet is on the ground it is weighed. Blood samples are taken from the bird; the blood sample will be tested for pesticides and other contaminants. We will take measurements to determine the sex and age of the bird, although in this case, the age is already known by all webcam viewers. A leg band will be placed on each leg: a silver federal band with an individual, engraved number, and a green band signifying its NJ origin. Since green bands are only used on NJ birds, they enable us to track where NJ birds are migrating, nesting and wintering. We know of 16 pairs of eagles that have at least one NJ-origin bird in the pair.
Some webcam viewers have asked whether banding the chicks will cause the parents to abandon the nest. The answer is NO. Eagle biologists have been banding young eagles for more than 30 years and the adults never abandon the nest or chicks. Further, the same adults maintain their residence in the nest area year round and continue to use the same nests annually. We are careful to not visit nests the first year they are established, so the adults will make a solid and disturbance-free connection to the nest site. We time nest visits for when the nestlings are six weeks of age, a time when they are not as strong or active and will not attempt to jump from the nest. All precautions are taken with the health and well being of the eagles in mind, and completing the work as quickly as possible.
Find Related Info: Bald Eagles, Raptors
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