The trio of nesting Bald Eagles at their nest along Illinois side of the Mississippi River (photo courtesy of the Stewards of the Upper Mississippi Refuge).

The more we study a species, the more we learn, and live cams are providing some interesting opportunities to study the behavior of species, even yielding some surprising individual behaviors. Without video you may not believe it, but in this case, watching it first hand, you’ll be a believer too. One popular Bald Eagle cam has documented the nesting behavior of a trio of eagles that includes two males that hunt, feed, and protect their female mate, nestlings, and nesting territory on the Illinois side of the Mississippi River.

The trio of adult Bald Eagles is currently raising a trio of large downy nestlings in their spacious nest. But you can get a year by year description of what the adult eagles have been through to succeed at a number of nesting attempts. To date, a second male was added to an existing pair to form the nesting trio. The original female was apparently killed during a sustained attack by two other eagles, but the males persisted without her and raised the two nestlings successfully that year without her. The following year a new female joined the males, and the trio has been quite successful since. You can check in on the trio of adults now, along with their trio of large downy nestlings on the live cam operating near Fulton, Illinois.

You can read the descriptions of the eagles’ nesting behavior year by year as provided by the Stewards of the Upper Mississippi River National Wildlife Refuge at http://stewardsumrr.org/webcams/bald-eagle-nest-cam-live-1/

To view the three eagles’ nest via live cam, click on the first eagle photo on the above link, or go directly to the live cam at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pG3YS74h2-0