DECORAH, IOWA -- All three eaglets have now hatched in Decorah, Iowa.
The eaglets began to crack from their egg shells (otherwise known as pip) started taking place on Monday, March 26. A "pip" is a tiny hole that the eaglet inside the egg makes with its "egg tooth" (a sharp little point at the end of its beek) in the outside shell when it first starts to hatch.
The nest has three eggs - the first was laid on February 17th, the second on February 20th and the third on February 24th. It takes about 35 days for bald eagle eggs to hatch.
Each eaglet will spent 12 to 38 hours emerging from its shell. The eaglets will now spend the next three months in the nest.
The eagle parents have been together since the winter of 2007-2008 when the mother was estimated to be about four years old. They've successfully hatched and fledged 11 eaglets, including three each year for the past three years. Last summer, the UStream live video of the three eaglets attracted 200 million views, becoming the most-watched live video in USteam history!
The nest is located near a state-owned fish hatchery in Decorah, Iowa, about 80 feet high in a tree on private land. According to the Raptor Resource Project, which runs the webcam, the nest is 6 feet wide, 5 feet deep and weighs 1.3 tons.
CLICK HERE to visit DecorahEagleCamAlerts.com - for more information and to sign up to be alerted when the real action gets underway in the nest!