Tragic End to EagleCam Story as Heavy Winds Blow Nest From Tree and Eaglet Dies

Many people who were watching the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources EagleCam got really sad over the weekend. This was because a huge storm came and blew away the nest with an eaglet in it from a tree.

A livestream video captured the terrible moment when a mother eagle’s nest broke apart and fell. As the branch snapped, she flew away in surprise and shock, but unfortunately her young baby was discovered dead on the ground afterward.

Denise Chung said that she and her kids were all very upset when they watched an eagle’s nest fall. She realized the baby in that nest had been lost, and this made her feel especially sad because she was a mom too.

The giant eagle nest weighed more than 2,000 pounds and had been there for more than 20 years but this past weekend’s heavy snow was too much for the tree branch it was on to hold it.

Millions of people from 180 countries and all 50 U.S. states have watched Minnesota’s EagleCam when 3 baby eagle siblings hatched 3 years ago, according to Lori Naumann from the Department of Natural Resources.

Because of the COVID-19 pandemic, people were stuck at home and felt bad mentally. Ulf Naumann said that this made them turn to cameras filming nature like Minnesota’s EagleCam. There are over 15,000 people in Facebook groups dedicated to the EagleCam, such as Chung who spends time with her kids and husband watching it for about four years now!

Chung said she had to turn to Facebook after realizing that she couldn’t get in touch with the Department of Natural Resources. This was because a brand new baby bird just hatched days ago and its life was hanging in the balance, and Chung wanted to warn people about this.

Two adult eagles have been flying around the area after their nest fell down. Since it’s too late in the nesting period to lay another egg, it is highly likely that these two will build a new nest in the same place since eagles prefer to keep their land.

“It’s sad that this is happening, but please don’t visit the eagle’s nest right now,” the department said. “It already made the eagle very upset, and having a lot of visitors near it will only make things worse.”

The department also mentioned that they plan to leave the camera there for now.

Trisha Ahmed works as part of a program called “Report for America” which is a non-profit organisation helping to place journalists in local newsrooms to report on issues that don’t get talked about a lot. If you want, you can follow Trisha’s work by checking out her Twitter account: @TrishaAhmed15.