Eagle
A bald eagle is pictured in the wild. Reuters

The weeks leading up to spring are some of the most exciting for eagle lovers, especially after the Raptors Research Project (RRP) set up a live stream so fans can watch eaglets hatch in Decorah, Iowa. A 24-hour web cam has been placed in several nests so viewers can watch the birds nurture their eggs until they’re ready to pip and then hatch.

Some people might not be familiar with the craze, but millions tune in to watch the eaglets take their first breaths of fresh air every year. Last year, the Decorah footage through Ustream received millions of views.

The Decorah eagles typically lay their eggs between Feb. 17 and 25 and the hatching starts about a month later. So for those who are just getting acquainted with the Decorah craze, you’re in for a treat: The eaglets will start to hatch within the next week.

Check out the live-stream footage posted below to see what the phenomenon is all about, courtesy of Ustream:

To keep everyone up to date, RRP regularly posts to their Facebook page. One of the latest updates, posted Thursday, showed the father eagle swooping into the nest to take over for the mother. “Ustream highlight. Dad flies in for a switch and Mom takes off rapidly at 10 seconds,” the message reads.

The post received more than 2,600 likes. The page itself has more than 211,000 likes, which has substantially grown within the year. In 2014, the page had 85,000 likes.

The RRP is a non-profit organization that specializes in preservation of birds of prey. The Eagle Cam has helped bring attention to the project as the Internet phenomenon continues to grow. So far, there have been more than 311 million instances of people tuning into the live stream, and the numbers will probably grow.

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