Eagles on Hilton Head live stream get closer to their eaglet’s hatching. When will it happen?
Gracie and George, the stars of the Hilton Head Island Land Trust’s eagle cam, eagerly await the ‘pip,’ or first break on the eggshell, as their two eggs start to hatch. Starting Feb. 7, fans will be on “pip watch” as they tune in for the first sign of a hatching eaglet.
Gracie laid her two eggs on Jan. 3 and 7. Since then, she’s been taking turns sitting on the eggs with her mate George. This is Gracie and George’s first season on the land trust’s eagle cam, though they’ve been nesting at the undisclosed location for about 13 years. Last year, the pair had three eggs, with two of the eaglets surviving to fledge, or fly away from the nest.
It typically takes about 35 days for eagle eggs to hatch, according to the land trust. After the first pip appears within the next week, it will take the eaglets about a day to break out of their egg. In the meantime, Gracie and George will start building a stock of food for when their eaglets arrive.
“Before they’re even totally out, the food pantry starts to build,” Robin Storey, the president of the land trust, said. “So the male will start bringing fish into the nest so there is food ready when that little one is ready to eat, and they eat pretty soon.”
From there, the eaglets will grow about half a pound each week until they’re 9 weeks old. When they’re five weeks old, they can begin standing and tearing up their own food. As their parents work almost non-stop to feed their hungry, eight-week-old teenagers, the eaglets will then start stepping out onto branches on their home tree and eventually fledge.
While the eagle cam was added this season, the land trust’s original raptor camera is still running, though the nest is empty. The nest has housed eagles, osprey and a pair of Great Horned Owls in the past, but after sustaining damage from Hurricane Helene it’s remained empty. It’s possible that ospreys will begin restoring the nest when they begin nesting in February.
This story was originally published February 4, 2025 at 11:59 AM.
