Developers of the housing development at Ginninderry have set up a live webcam so Canberrans can monitor the movements of a little eagle pair nesting at the West Belconnen site.
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Environment and Heritage Minister Mick Gentleman said it was hoped the cameras would provide information on the diet of the little eagle, a threatened species in the ACT.
"Little eagles are a cautious bird and can abandon a nest site if disturbed, particularly at this early stage before a chick is present, so this technology provides a disturbance-free form of public access," Mr Gentleman said, with the community able to become "witnesses to the research".
The Ginninderry housing development, a joint venture between the ACT government and the Corkhill Brothers, will see 11,500 homes built over 30 years, housing 30,000 people. The development faces opposition because of the removal of trees, the impact on the habitat of the little eagle, and the environmental importance of the area.
In 2013, the developers discovered a nesting little eagle at the site, and in 2015 they put a tracker on the male.
The first stage of housing involves removing 20 regulated, hollow bearing and habitat trees.
Resource recovery manger for the Ginninderry joint venture David Roberts said the removal of trees should not impact the eagle. He said the development has been "fanatical" about retaining trees.
"We've had a lot of research done showing us which are the important trees, which are the old trees, which are the trees with hollows," he said.
"The removal of trees shouldn't per se be an issue, but obviously if you're building a suburb over a paddock - if that was a paddock where they hunted rabbits, that resource isn't going to be available to them anymore."
From pellets collected at the Belconnen nest sites, it was found that by weight more than 50 per cent of the birds' diet is rabbit, with medium-sized birds such as starlings, rosellas and magpies making up the next largest component. Lizards and large insects, such as cicadas are also eaten.
Mr Roberts said the technology has allowed researchers to learn more about the little eagle.
"We've learnt a number of things surprisingly, I suppose the first thing we've learnt is how little we actually knew," he said. "The more we've looked, the more of these pairs of little eagles we've found.
"They were talking about there only being one or two left. Well, we've already found five definite pairs breeding in the ACT."
The device tracking the male stopped transmitting in July this year. The transmitters, which weigh 22 grams, have a life of 18 months to three years.
The male was one half of a pair of eagles that raised a chick last season and researchers are hoping for an egg again in the coming weeks. Mr Roberts said the pair had happily raised the chick and didn't seem to be bothered by noise and disturbance at the nest side.
"The current nest is next to an events hall where they hold weddings and parties... There's lots of noise and carry on that happens there, it's never bothered them," he said.
"Last year we built our big new office complex just outside the exclusion zone, fairly close and it didn't bother them at all. They raised a chick there quite happily there last year."
Mr Roberts said after the chick left the nest earlier this year, the male flew more than 3300 kilometres to spend winter in the Northern Territory, just north of Daly Waters. This bird returned to Ginninderry on August 13, but has not been seen in the last couple of weeks.
The live stream can be viewed here. During the current nest-repairing stage, the little eagles are most likely to be visiting the nest between 8am and 10am.
