A family of bald eagles in Cincinnati is living its life on camera and thousands of people are tuning in every month.
Cardinal Land Conservancy runs a 24/7 livestream showing the nest of a pair of bald eagles at the Bortz Family Nature Preserve during the egg-laying season.
Currently, three fluffy baby eagles can be seen sleeping, eating and wobbling around the nest. Director of Conservation Jack Stenger says they hatched in March and have been growing rapidly since then.
“Three is really exceptional for a bald eagle nest — often they only fledge one young or only have two eggs,” Stenger told WVXU. “We think that because this nest is located in such good habitat and good hunting grounds at the confluence of the Little Miami River and the Ohio River, they are able to support more young.”
Ohio’s bald eagle population is continuing to grow. A 2025 bald eagle nest census found 964 active nests, an increase from the 707 nests found during the 2020 nest census, according to the Ohio Department of Natural Resources.
Stenger says the livestream is a way to connect people with nature in their backyards. The land conservancy set up the camera in 2022.
“When a lot of people think about nature and natural areas and the concept of wilderness, they may think of places farther away from Cincinnati, and that you might have to go a long way to some exotic location to see an eagle or any of the really neat wildlife in North America,” Stenger said. “But, we have that right here. We have a lot of spectacular biodiversity in Cincinnati.”
He says at least 2,000 people watch monthly, from students at local schools to bird watchers from all corners of the country.
“Many people just have it on literally all day long as they're working,” Stenger said. “They’ve got the camera up, or they’ve got the volume turned up to 100 and you can hear when the parents come back, or just all of the other birds singing down in the bottomlands there.”
He says you can watch the eaglets continue to get bigger, start perching on the side of the nest, branch out onto nearby twigs and take their first flights over the next few months. By July Fourth, Stenger says he hopes they’ll be flying up and down the Ohio and Little Miami Rivers on their own.
While the eagle's nest isn't visible from public access points, Stenger recommends taking a hike at the Bortz Family Nature Preserve in the East End neighborhood. Keep your eyes on the sky and you might be able to catch a glimpse of the national bird in real life.
Watch the livestream: www.cardinallandconservancy.org/eagle-camera/
You can also see three bald eagle chicks in a nest in Warren County on a livestream from the Little Miami Conservancy.
Watch the livestream: www.littlemiami.org/baldeagleslive
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