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Oldest Eagle Cam In D.C. Welcomes 1st Hatchling Of 2017

BALTIMORE (WJZ) -- An eagle cam at the Metropolitan Police Academy in SE D.C. has welcomed the first hatchling of the year.

Liberty, a female, and Justice, a male, have raised young for eleven years in a nest 110 feet up an oak tree at the academy, according to the sponsors of the live cam -- the Earth Conservation Corps, the Metropolitan Police Department and the National Park Service.

Liberty is primarily responsible for incubating the eggs and caring for the young chicks once they hatch. Justice has the crucial job of catching fish and bringing them to the nest for his mate and hatchlings.

"The eagles are an urban wildlife success story," according to the Earth Conservation Corps. "Pollution forced bald eagles to abandon their last D.C. nest in 1946. In 1994, the teenage volunteers of the Earth Conservation Corps launched a bold experiment to try to spur the return of the bald eagle as a nesting resident of our Nation's Capital. Under U.S. Fish and Wildlife permits, the Corps translocated 16 eaglets from nests in Wisconsin to an artificial 'hack box' at the U.S. National Arboretum. After being raised for six weeks at the Arboretum the juvenile eagles were released into the skies over Washington. Four eaglets were released every spring from 1994 to 1998. Between the eagle restoration efforts the youth of the Earth Conservation Corps galvanized the entire city in their mission to restore the eagles' Anacostia River habitat.

CLICK HERE to vote for names for the eaglets!

To check out the LIVE Eagle Cam, CLICK HERE.

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