A second eaglet has hatched at a Pittsburgh bald eagle nest on a bluff high above the Monongahela River, in the city’s Hays neighborhood.
The Audubon Society of Western Pennsylvania said the second egg hatched shortly after 7 a.m. Sunday. The first eaglet emerged Friday, and a third egg is still in the nest. The eggs were laid several days apart and require about 35 days of incubation. The third one will hatch around April 2 if it's also viable.
This eagle pair is in its second nesting season. Bald eagle pairs are active on two additional sites in Allegheny County after being absent for decades. More than 200 nests have been reported in Pennsylvania, but these two are the first to successfully breed in the city in more than 150 years. They raised an eaglet that fledged last summer.
A popular live-stream camera showing the nest is provided by Murrysville-based PixController Inc., which is working with the Pennsylvania Game Commission. Bill Powers, CEO of PixController, said the eaglet that was born Friday was almost standing up as it was fed on Saturday. The mother eagle tore pieces off a fish and both parents fed the baby.
Fish will be the menu for the eaglets about 75 percent of the time, said Brian Shema, director of Conservation for the Audubon Society of Western Pennsylvania.
The first eaglet will develop its second coat of down feathers quickly within 10 days of hatching, according to the Audubon Society.
The bald eagle is the national animal of the United States of America.
(WPXI and AP contributed to this report.)
