BLOOMINGTON - The city of Bloomington launched a webcam Wednesday so viewers can see the two bald eagles as they tend the last surviving egg of two laid at Miller Park Zoo earlier this month. | Web cam | Eagle Watch | Latest photos

The camera, which is the city's first wireless connection to post pictures on the Internet, takes still photos that are updated every minute, said Scott Sprouls, information services director for the city of Bloomington. Sprouls installed the unit with Craig McBeath, the city's webmaster.

The webcam is accessible at www.pantagraph.com or at www.cityblm.org/mpzeagle.asp. The Pantagraph site also offers links to archived newspaper stories and a gallery of eagle photos taken by Pantagraph photographers. More than 1,200 people are looking at the photos every day.

The egg could hatch over Memorial Day weekend based on an incubation period of 34 days.

"This is amazing for us. We are having a lot of fun," Sprouls said. "The eagles are great. It will be amazing if it hatches."

"It's all pretty unique," agreed Zoo director John Tobias, who's been touched by the outpouring of interest and concern expressed by people from Central Illinois and across the nation.

Beauty, the female bald eagle, shares the open-topped enclosure with Mathata, a male. Both are unable to fly due to injuries that landed them in captivity.

One egg remains. There is no way to know if the egg was the first or second in sequence.

The other egg disappeared from the nest on Friday. Experts now theorize Beauty may have eaten the egg herself.

"Egg-eating behavior is relatively rare, but there are reports in the scientific literature that some birds will eat their own eggs if they have been damaged or they will eat presumably infertile eggs that are in the nest after other eggs have hatched," said Given Harper, an eagle expert who leads the biology department at Illinois Wesleyan University.

Tobias first thought a raccoon may have taken it, but wondered if an animal would have the courage to steal an egg from two adult eagles. Tobias also feared a person may have scaled the zoo's 8-foot high fence to grab it.

Beauty had not laid eggs for the 13 years she's been at the zoo. That changed in early May during a visit to the zoo by a wild bald eagle that stayed four days during its annual migration.

First, one egg appeared, then zoo staff noticed a second one a few days later.

Experts assume the visitor was a male based on its interest in Beauty. However, it's not known if the wild bird or Mathata fertilized the eggs. Beauty and Mathata are sharing egg-tending duties, though Beauty spends more time on the nest.

"She is very protective," Tobias said. "It is fun to watch her as she sits down on the egg. She arranges herself just so and eases down on top."

Zoo officials had considered "candling" the eggs on Mother's Day by shining a light from the back to see if they were developing. But officials decided against doing even that routine procedure so they would not disturb Beauty and Mathata.