Hawk Cam is the Bald Eagle Cam for New Yorkers

The Decorah Eagle Cam – the Raptor Resource Project’s 24 hour live feed of a bald eagle’s nest complete with three little eaglets – is still up and running, still attracting six-digit simultaneous viewers, and still racking up its total view count to the tune of 32+ million eagle, mother nature, and American iconography enthusiasts. It’s also giving some attention to the greater birds-of-prey-watching community, including those in urban environments.

The Hawk Cam is a live, daylight hours feed straight from the 12th floor of New York University’s Bobst Library on Washington Square Park in Manhattan. The camera and footage come courtesy of the New York Time’s City Room, which had the good thought to install the equipment after NYU president John Sexton tipped the paper off to the two red-tailed hawks mating and nesting outside his window.

The hawks’ names are Violet and Bobby – named after one of NYU’s colors and the library where they stitched together a home – and together they look after a trio of speckled eggs scheduled to hatch sometime around April 22.

Viewer numbers for the Hawk Cam don’t come close to those for the Eagle Cam, at least not yet. At any given time of the day, 900 to 1,300 or so individuals tune in to see what Violet or Bobby or both are up to. Add all those viewers up and they account for roughly 5+ million total minutes of viewing time on the Hawk Cam so far. Expect those numbers to increase as Violet and Bobby get closer to their due date.

In support the NYC tech scene, the New York Times also had the good taste to make the New York-based Livestream the Hawk Cam’s live streaming partner of choice.

(Photo of Violet and Bobby by Christopher James at NYU.)