Decorah North Bald Eagle Cam

Welcome to the Decorah North Bald Eagle Nest! We hope you enjoy watching and learning with us! Click the livestream to watch and scroll down the page to learn more about the eagles and their surroundings.

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Decorah Iowa
10:01 am, May 16, 2025
weather icon 67°F
Wind 19 mph SW
Precipitation 0 inch
Snow 0
Sunrise 5:41 am
Sunset 8:25 pm

About the Decorah North Eagles

About the Eagles

The Decorah North eagles are nesting on private property north of Decorah, Iowa. Their nest is located in a white oak tree in a scrap of forest bordering a valley. A stream is located across a field where cattle are pastured. In general, the eagles begin courtship in October, productive mating in late January or early February, and egg-laying in mid to late February. Hatching usually begins in late March to early April, and the eaglets fledge in mid-to-late June. While young usually disperse between August and October, the adults remain on territory year round.

The eagles eat live and dead fish, squirrels, other birds, rabbit, muskrat, deer, possum and anything else they can catch or find. To learn more about bald eagles in general, please follow this link to the Cornell Lab of Ornithology website.

Adults
Decorah North Bald Eagles: DNF and Mr. North
Decorah North Bald Eagles: DNF and Mr. North

The male is known as Mr. North.  The female is the Decorah North Female, or DNF, who replaced Mrs. North in the summer of 2018. We don’t know exactly how or when it happened. You can read more about it here: https://www.raptorresource.org/2019/01/20/north-nest-announcement/

Nests

The first nest at the North site was built in a pine tree. The branches collapsed after the second nesting season and the eagles moved to a dead elm tree. They nested there for just one year before moving to their current location in late 2013. In August of 2018, their nest collapsed and slid or fell out of the nest tree during an extremely heavy storm. None of the tree branches were broken or damaged, so we decided to build a starter nest in the same spot. In 2024, the tree limbs supporting the nest broke following a heavy rain and we created a new nest by using a fork in the same tree and adding a ‘bionic’ limb.

  • 2024: The limbs supporting the nest break. John Howe and Amy Ries build a new nest using a fork in the same tree and a bionic limb that John constructed.
  • 2018: A female eagle (DNF, or Decorah North Female) replaces Mrs. North over the summer. The nest falls out of the tree following a storm in late August. Kike Arnal and Amy Ries build a starter nest in mid-September. Mr. North and DNF adopt it in October.
  • 2015: RRP adds cameras to the North Nest in September.
  • 2013: The tree falls. The eagles begin a new nest in a white oak tree.
  • 2011: The branches holding the nest collapse. The eagles build a new nest in a dead elm tree.
  • 2009: A pair of eagles establishes the Decorah North territory, building a nest in a white pine tree.
Quick facts
Common name: Bald Eagle
Scientific name: Haliaeetus leucocephalus
Length: 2.3–3.1 feet | 71–96 cm
Wingspan: 5.9 – 7.5 feet | 1.7-2.2 meters
Weight: 6.5 – 13.8 pounds | 3–6.3 kilograms
Lifespan: Up to 40 years in the wild

Bald Eagle Vocalization

Learn More About Bald Eagles

Feather Follicle

What are feathers? What is molt?

Eaglets go through two molts and three feather stages in the nest: natal down (and molt), followed by thermal down (and molt), followed by juvenile feathers. As of this blog, TE3 is shedding the very last of its natal down and its thermal down is rapidly being replaced by juvenile down and feathers. We thought we would blog a little more about feathers to celebrate!  When we think about feathers, we tend to think about their qualities (light, soft, fluffy,

April 26, 2025: Sweet eagle dreams, TE3!

Eaglet Growth and Development: Week Three

We’re writing a series of blogs about the first few weeks of an eaglet’s life. An eaglet spends roughly 75 to 80 days in the nest. For about the first half, it grows and gains weight. For about the second half, it grows flight feathers and starts developing the skills it will need post-fledge. We will focus on week three in this blog. TE3 turned 20 days old today. During week two (seven to 14 days), its footpads and talons

February 21, 2022: North Nestoration Follies!

What Makes Bald Eagles Incubate?

We wrote this blog to describe events at the North Nest back in 2023, when Mr. North and DNF were coping with a lot of intruders. Instead of perching near the nest, packing in food, and developing the reserves she needed to lay eggs, DNF guarded her nest, egg, and mate from potential rivals. After egg number one, her testosterone and progesterone should rapidly decrease, while prolactin, a hormone that induces incubation and brood patch swelling, should rapidly increase. But intruder-related

April 23, 2025: What a solid little chunk - and see those growing clown clompers?

Eaglet Growth and Development, Week Two

In their second week of development, eaglets gain roughly two pounds, experience rapid growth in features like beaks, culmens, and footpads, start replacing their white natal down with thicker grey thermal down…

March 27, 2024: An Eagletude fit for royalty! DN17 and DN18 turned three and two days old today.

Eaglet Growth and Development: Week One

We’re writing a series of blogs about the first few weeks of an eaglet’s life. An eaglet spends roughly 75 to 80 days in the nest. For about the first half, it grows and gains weight. For about the second half, it grows flight feathers and starts developing the skills it will need post-fledge. We will focus on week one in this blog. What can we expect in the first week following hatch? Like humans, a growing eaglet has developmental

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News

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February 21, 2022: North Nestoration Follies!

What Makes Bald Eagles Incubate?

We wrote this blog to describe events at the North Nest back in 2023, when Mr. North and DNF were coping with a lot of intruders. Instead of perching near the nest, packing in food, and developing the reserves she needed to lay eggs, DNF guarded her nest, egg, and mate from potential rivals. After egg number one, her testosterone and progesterone should rapidly decrease, while prolactin, a hormone that induces incubation and brood patch swelling, should rapidly increase. But intruder-related

April 23, 2025: What a solid little chunk - and see those growing clown clompers?

Eaglet Growth and Development, Week Two

In their second week of development, eaglets gain roughly two pounds, experience rapid growth in features like beaks, culmens, and footpads, start replacing their white natal down with thicker grey thermal down…

February 28, 2025: Mr. North's gift

The Decorah North Nest has failed

We are sorry to announce that the North Nest has failed. DN20’s egg is 40 days old with no signs of hatching. Based on everything we know, it’s not going to. We don’t know why the nest failed, but we’re discussing next steps and will keep everyone posted. We have hatch at two other eagle nests coming up. They are: This is not the outcome we wanted or expected, but thank you for sharing this journey with us. No related

February 15, 2025: DNF's eggs. Eagle eggs don’t freeze easily or quickly.

Eaglet DN19

We are sad to announce that DN19 died in hatch. We saw the egg’s first external pip at 12:03 PM on March 20, but after four days of hatch in progress, all movement ceased. Hatch had been proceeding for about 103 hours at that point: longer than the longest documented hatch time that we could find, and much longer than the 24 to 48 hours post-pip that we usually see here. As of this post, we don’t know why DN19

1:23 PM on Saturday, March 22.

Decorah North Hatch Update!

Hatch update! The hatch windows are getting larger and both eaglets are still making progress, although it’s been slow going this year and the cold, wet weather isn’t helping when it comes to glimpses. Mr. North and DNF are old hands at this, which means they aren’t dallying when it comes to covering the hatchlings! A huge thank you to our camera operators. The cold, wet weather means that these glimpses are few and far between. But they are there

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Nest Records

Eaglets and Outcomes: Detailed Annual Information

Year Nest Parents Eaglets Known Outcomes
2024 DN4 Mr. North, DNF DN17, DN18 DN17 and DN18 both fledged successfully, not long before the limbs supporting the nest broke and the nest fell. We believe they dispersed in mid to late August.
2023 DN4 Mr. North, DNF None DNF laid one egg but abandoned incubation two days after laying it. Mr. North incubated their lone egg, which most likely froze before it cracked. She did not reclutch.
2022 DN4 Mr. North, DNF DN15, DN16 DN15 and DN16 both fledged successfully! As of late July, the two were exploring the North Valley and improving their flight skills. We saw some black flies here, but there were not enough to drive the young from the nest.
2021 DN4 Mr. North, DNF DN13, DN14 DN13 and DN14 both fledged successfully! As of early July, 2021, the two were exploring the North Valley and improving their flight skills. Black flies were not an issue at this nest in 2021.
2020 DN4 Mr. North, DNF DN11, DN12 DN11 died at 5:56 AM on April 10. It appeared to have an obstruction in its throat that it could not clear. DN12 fledged successfully.
2019 DN4 Mr. North, DNF DN9, DN10 DNF laid two eggs beginning on February 21st. Both hatched beginning on March31, but DN10 died shortly after hatch. DN9 abandoned the nest early following an intense blackfly swarm. David Kester from the Raptor Resource Project rescued him. He was cared for by SOAR and released in the fall of 2019.
2018 DN3 Mr. North, Mrs. North DN7, DN8 Mrs. North laid one egg on 2/25/18. That egg broke in the wee hours of March 16. She reclutched on 4/12, laying two eggs. Both eggs hatched, but the eaglets succumbed to heat and blackfly bites on May 25.
2017 DN3 Mr. North, Mrs. North DN4, DN5, DN6 DN6 died of hypothermia shortly after hatch. DN4 and DN5 survived and fledged.
2016 DN3 Mr. North, Mrs. North DN1, DN2, DN3 3 eggs hatched. DN3 died of cold and
malnourishment on May 11. Sibling
aggression was a significant factor. DN2
was killed by contaminated prey on
May 25th. DN1 survived to fledge.

We often get questions about where the eaglets go after they disperse. We have never tracked eaglets from this nest, but we have tracked eaglets from the Decorah nest. For more information, visit our eagle maps.

Decorah North Eagles Video Library

Decorah North Eagles Video Library

Click the hamburger icon on the top right of the video below to view a full list of videos from our most recent playlist, or visit our youtube channel here: https://www.youtube.com/c/RaptorResourceProject.