Three Cool Birds Of Prey Cams To Watch Now

Three cool birds of prey cams are up and running right now to provide an inside look at how hawks and eagles raise their babies.

Last week, The New York Times, which donates some of the equipment, announced that a pair of red-tailed hawks had returned for the third season of their popular Hawk Cam that follows the life of the red-tails of Washington Square. The pair, believed to be last year’s Rosie and Bobby, have laid three eggs in the nest they built on the ledge outside the window of New York University’s president John Sexton.

The university will sponsor the broadcast, along with New York Audubon which will provide educational resources about the charismatic birds of prey.

A second pair of Red-tailed hawks, Ezra and Big Red, are the stars of Cornell Bird Lab’s hawk cam in Ithaca, New York. That pair laid their third egg on Thursday.

The wildly popular Bald Eagles on the Alcoa Eagle cam in Davenport, Iowa are back after a huge 2012 season that attracted more than 12 million viewers. The two adults, Liberty and Justice, successfully hatched out their second chick a week ago. A contest to name the new arrivals will open on Wednesday.

Although the official first day of spring was Wednesday, birds of prey traditionally begin their families much earlier. So forget about the video hoaxers with their eagles carrying off fake babies and enjoy the real deal.

The Cornell Bird Lab and Alcoa cams ask you to click the links to visit their sites in order to view the cams. The NYU hawk cam is available right here, although a visit to their site for more information will keep you entertained for hours:

Watch live streaming video from nytnestcam at livestream.com

How many man-hours of lost productivity a year are lost to America’s cute bird of prey cams?

[adult bald eagle photo courtesy Carl Chapman and Wikipedia Commons]