Mr. President & The First Lady Bald Eagle Cam

Mr. President & The First Lady BALD EAGLE CAM

National Arboretum Bald Eagle Nest Cam, Washington, DC

In Partnership with the American Eagle Foundation  • Powered by HDOnTap

 

 

About This Pair of Bald Eagles

In 2014, a pair of mated Bald Eagles chose the most idyllic of nest sites within the United States’ National Capital, Washington, DC, nestled high in a Tulip Poplar Tree amongst The Azalea Collection at the United States National Arboretum, which is operated by the United States Department of Agriculture. This was the first time Bald Eagles have nested in this location since 1947. 

Mr. President and The First Lady, returned to the National Arboretum on October 15, 2018. Since their return, they’ve been seen near and on the nest. 

The First Lady (female), aside from being larger, appears to have more of the lighter edging on her feathers, particularly on the back, between the wings.

 

Bald Eagle Nest Information & Location: 

Their tree is located on the western edge of the Arboretum’s famed Glenn Dale azalea collection, the destination of springtime visitors to the Arboretum since 1949. The azaleas bloom in late April and early May. Staff from USNA engaged in early consultation with Craig Koppie, US Fish and Wildlife Service Chesapeake Bay Field Office to avoid disturbance and minimize potential impacts to the new Eagle pair. The presence of the Bald Eagle nest so close to Azalea Drive along the south side of Mount Hamilton means the road is closed off to vehicles. A smaller segment of Azalea Drive will be closed to pedestrians because it is within the buffer zone (roughly 660 feet in diameter surrounding the nest site). Visitors can still explore most of the Azalea Collections from the east side trailheads, however, visitors are not allowed to see the nest itself.

The current nest is approximately five feet wide by six feet deep. The tree selected by this pair is large enough to support a nest, is within sight distance of the river, and is also located in one of the few parts of the District with limited human disturbance.

The Arboretum has a number of mature trees that are large enough to support an eagle’s nest. Even though this nest is in an urban area, the Arboretum provides quality wildlife habitat and enough open space to dampen the commotion and noise from the city. Also, the Arboretum’s eastern boundary is the Anacostia River, which is a significant food source.

There are about 50 species of fish in the Anacostia, some are minnows, alewives and other small fish but there are some like shad, bass, herring, warmouth, gar and American eel that they could catch. We know for sure they are eating catfish, most likely a bullhead type and perch (we saw that when USFWS did their fly over last season, it was sitting on the edge of the nest). It was noted that the eagles may have been feeding on either a female ruddy duck or coot, there was also some herring or ring-billed gull primary feathers in the nest.

The Anacostia River supports 188 species of birds and nearly 50 species of fish. Some of the animals you can see in and along the river include: bald eagles, beavers, white perch, ospreys, striped bass, cormorants, crayfish, herons, turtles, egrets, otters, herring, red fox, shad, kingfishers, and bullhead catfish.

 

 

For more information visit the American Eagle Foundation's website. 

 

 

2020 Season History

Summary: TBD

• January 17, 2020 - Cameras went live on HDOnTap.com 

 

2019 Season History

Summary: 0 eggs laid

• February 5, 2019 - Cameras went live 

 

2018 Season History

Summary: 2 eggs, 2 hatches, 1 fledge

• September 28, 2017 - Mr. President returned to nest
• October 9, 2017 - First Lady returned to nest
• March 25, 2018 - First egg laid
• March 28, 2018 - Second egg laid 
• April 30, 2018 - First Hatch
• May 3, 2018 - Second Hatch
• July 12, 2018 - First Fledge "Victory"
• July 26, 2018 - Second Fledge "Valor"
• August 2018 - Valor fell from the nest and was recovered a few days later. He was taken to Tri-State and was later humanely euthanized because it was confirned he had contracted West Nile Virus 

 

2017 Season History

Summary:  2 eggs, 2 hatches, 2 fledges

• September 13, 2016 - Mr. President returned to nest
• October 11, 2016 - First Lady returned to nest
• February 19, 2017 - First egg laid
• February 23, 2017 - Second egg laid 
• March 29, 2017 - First Hatch
• March 30, 2017 - Second Hatch
• June 19, 2017 - First Fledge "Glory"
• June 22, 2017 - Second Fledge "Honor"  

 

These community guidelines will provide a practical and ethical guide for using HDOnTap.com as well as set forth HDOnTap's official policies on acceptable community behavior and community rules. Guidelines may be updated from time to time. By reading, posting and participating in the HDOnTap community, you agree to abide by these community guidelines.

Comments on the HDOnTap.com website are facilitated through Spot.IM - user support for Spot.IM is available by emailing support@spot.im and is not directly provided by HDOnTap. Users are required, to create a Spot.IM account in order to post comments. Posts that fail automatic moderation (see more on this below) are subject to moderator review prior to being posted and may be subject to up to a two-day delay.

General Rules and Guidelines

• Keep your comments focused on the topic at hand.
• Be polite and remember the "Golden Rule".
• No spamming, baiting or trolling.
• Limit personal information.
• Comments can be removed at the discretion of the moderators.
• Users can be banned at the discretion of the moderators.
• If someone writes something you don't like, NEVER engage them - use the Report feature instead. If two people escalate, both may be banned.

Publishing Guidelines

You may only have one account per person. Multiple accounts for the same person will be removed and the originating IP Address may be blacklisted.

Please keep posts on topic. With regard to nest cams specifically, information on other nests may be limited or removed, especially when the featured nest is active. This is to limit confusion for community members and is at the sole discretion of HDOnTap staff and Live Cam Ambassadors.

Content that falls under the following is subject to immediate removal and potential user ban. Please note that this list is not exclusive and all moderation is at the ultimate discretion of HDOnTap.

• Profane, defamatory, offensive or violent language
• Trolling, impersonation or posting deliberately disruptive statements meant to hijack comment threads or throw discussions off track
• Attacks on specific groups or any comments meant to harass, threaten or abuse an individual
• Hateful or discriminatory comments regarding race, ethnicity, religion,  gender, disability, sexual orientation or political beliefs
• Links or comments containing sexually explicit content
• Spam or link baiting
• Acknowledgment of intent to stalk an individual, or collect or publish private information without disclosure
• Commercial solicitations
• Violations of copyright or intellectual property rights
• Content that relates to confidential  or proprietary business information
• Content determined to be inappropriate, in poor taste, or otherwise contrary to the purposes of this community

Banned users who attempt to circumvent their ban status may be subject to a complete IP ban and inability to access the HDOnTap website. Additionally, non-banned users are prohibited from posting on a banned user's behalf, and are subject to ban as a result.

On occasion, legitimate posts may fail automatic moderation and be marked as "Spam". When this occurs, the post will not be visible until it is manually moderated (subject to a 2-day delay). Users are encouraged to consider the following best practices to avoid the moderation queue:

• Avoid posting in all caps or with excessive capitalization
• Avoid posting with excessive punctuation
• Avoid rapid, repetetive posts of a similar or identical nature

Moderators and Moderation

HDOnTap.com is moderated by HDOnTap staff as well as appointed Live Cam Ambassadors. All moderators will be identified as such next to their display name. 

Moderators will use their best judgment to apply these guidelines in a fair way and moderate activities appropriately to ensure the overall health of the HDOnTap community. Moderators may not have the time or inclination to explain their moderation decisions and are under no obligations to do so. Any activity, comments, posts or other interaction that you may have with this community may be moderated, with or without explanation. Moderators have the final decision on what is and isn't acceptable use of this community.

Community members may also flag posts if they believe something may be in violation of our Community Guidelines. Once a post has been flagged, it will be reviewed by the moderation team. If a post has received multiple flags, it may be temporarily removed from the comments stream pending review.

Advertising, self-promotion and repeated posts of the same content - even a well thought out comment - are all considered spam and are subject to removal.

If you are not sure if something you want to post will breach community guidelines or in the event that you have a disagreement with a moderator, please contact info@hdontap.com. Please note that response to inquiries of this kind are at the discretion of HDOnTap.

Last Edited on 2018-3-10

Issues with Live Streaming

• We're sorry to hear that you are experiencing an issue! Please follow our troubleshooting tips for buffering or other stream issues.

• If your issue is not resolved by following the troubleshooting tips above, please click here to submit a speed test and support ticket.

Issues with commenting/Spot.IM

• Get support for issues with comments (including log in issues) by emailing support@spot.im.

• Report an issue with another viewer by hovering over their post and clicking the down-arrow on the right, then selecting "Report". You may also report by creating a comment and tagging "@hdontap" to notify us directly.

Viewer Feedback

• We greatly value feedback from our viewers! We encourage you to fill out our Viewer Feedback Form to help us deliver the best viewing experience.