See nictitating membranes in action!

There’s a great nature event happening right now. Biologists have set up video cameras to watch a growing bald eagle family in the US National Arboretum in Washington DC, and anyone with an internet connection can watch them at any time.

You can visit the DC EagleCam, 24 hours a day, at  http://dceaglecam.eagles.org

Even though this is the east coast, bald eagles also winter in the desert, usually in the high country. But the relevant  feature right now is that sometimes you can get a glimpse of the eagle’s nictitating membranes at work.

Here’s how. It’s best to watch in the day time. Click on one of the two cameras so you can more easily see the adult eagle’s eye, and enlarge the image, by clicking the bracket-box at the lower right corner of the video.

You will most often just see the eagle blinking–but every so often, you get to see the “third eyelid” swipe part way or all the way across the eye, starting from the corner nearest the beak. Wow!

And if you get so busy watching the adults and chicks and their activities you forget the third eyelid, that’s OK too!

…..Image taken April 6 2016 from dceaglecam.eagles.org © 2016 American Eagle Foundation, EAGLES.ORG

Advertisement