Eggtastic news for Harmar bald eagles? Bird behavior hints that incubation has begun

After a few days of constant presence at the nest, the Harmar bald eagles are believed to be incubating at least one egg, according to a local photographer.

Without the benefit of a webcam, watchers have to rely on the birds’ behavior to determine if there are eggs.

Typically, the parents — but mostly the female — incubate the eggs round- the-clock for 35 days until they hatch. The female will switch off nest duty with the male.

Fox Chapel photographer Gina Gilmore saw the female eagle, known to watchers as Sophie, hunker down in the nest and stay there from Wednesday afternoon through Friday. Gilmore also saw the “changing of the guard” on Thursday when the male nested over an apparent egg incubation and the female took a break.

Continuously presence in the nest is one indicator of birds incubating an egg, according to Rachel Handel, spokeswoman for the Audubon Society of Western Pennsylvania.

“Because we can’t see into the nest and because we have not been down to view the nest, Audubon can’t confirm at this time that there is an egg,” she said.

However, the last week in February is typically when the Harmar bald eagles lay their first egg, according to Handel. Audubon and CSE Corp. of Murrysville previously had a webcam trained on the birds’ old nest on the same hillside.

The Harmar bald eagles are in their seventh year of nesting on the same hillside above Route 28. Last year, the birds built a new nest for the 2019 nesting season after their first nest fell. But the webcam did not follow the couple as the terrain at the new nest site is too dangerous for a crew to access to safely install a camera, according to Audubon.

To learn more about the Harmar eagles, visit the Facebook page Harmar Bald Eagles of Pittsburgh.