Pittsburgh Has PA’s First Eaglecam!

27 December 2013

Thanks to Pix Controller and the PA Game Commission the first bald eagle nestcam in Pennsylvania is right here in Pittsburgh!

Installed one week ago (20 Dec 2013) it’s already capturing the activities of the Hays bald eagle pair at their nest above the Monongahela River.

As you can see, installing the camera involved some scary tree climbing by Derek Spitler of the PA Game Commission.  (The nest is in the tree to his right.)  Mary Ann Thomas reported on the installation at TribLive. Click here to see close-ups and video of the installation.

Derek Spitler of the PA Game Commission mounts a remotely operated surveillance camera next to an eagle’s nest on a steep hillside overlooking the Monongahela River in the Hays section of Pittsburgh (photo by Hal Korber, Pennsylvania Game Commission)

Pittsburgh’s eaglecam has already captured the pair at their nest.  The video at top was taken on Christmas Day 2013 and there are videos of the pair together on 23 December and one eagle in snow on 26 December 2013.

Though the site is within the city limits it is quite remote.  There is no electricity and no Internet connection so the camera runs on solar power and transmits using the cell network.  Right now Bill Powers of PixController is working out the kinks of too little battery power to run all night and thin data bandwidth from Sprint. All of it must be fixed within the next two weeks before access to the site is cut off to protect the eagles while they court and nest.

Bald eagles abandon nest sites with too much human disturbance so the area is posted, has video surveillance, and intruders are fined $1,000 to $10,000 by the PA Game Commission. Don’t even dream of going there.

Trib Total Media will stream the live feed on its website beginning in February 2014.  Meanwhile you can see new video clips and watch the eagles online at PixController’s eaglecam site. If the camera is not streaming, rest assured that they’re working on it.

NOTE: seven years later in December 2020. The Hays Eaglecam is hosted here by the Audubon Society of Western Pennsylvania.

(Pittsburgh bald eagle nestcam video by PixController. Screenshot of camera installation from TribLive.)

p.s. While you wait for activity in Pittsburgh, watch eagle chicks on camera in Ft. Myers, Florida on the Southwest Florida Eaglecam.

8 thoughts on “Pittsburgh Has PA’s First Eaglecam!

  1. Aren’t we lucky to get this webcam! Thank you to all involved. Hopefully, we will have babies in the Spring.

  2. This is great thank you …..do we have names for these Eagles?……and also new eaglets at American Eagle foundation NW Florida I watch both nice way to end the year watched Hope and Horror last year at SW Florida nest cam thank you again not much on face book right now

    1. Brenda, there aren’t names for the Pittsburgh eagles at this time. The PA Game Commission doesn’t name wild birds.

  3. This is a great thing for the Pittsburgh area to have. My biggest surprise is that they have taken up residence on the Mon. You know the river that wouldn’t freeze over because of all of the pollution. Why are there no nesting eagles on the Allegheny? I’d have thought that was the cleaner of the two.

    1. Rich, there are being eagles on the Allegheny near Oakmont. They don’t have a camera on them. Last year they didn’t nest but it looks like they might this year.

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