Editor's note: Following a violent nor'easter that pummeled the U.S. East Coast, scientists at the BioDiversity Research Institute reported that the baby eagles have died.

The "birds had been absent from the nest both during the day and the night," the institute's Wing Goodale wrote on April 19 on the Bald Eaglecam blog. "This evidence indicates that the eaglets likely didn't survive the storm."

April 16, 2007—An unlikely reality-show starlet "broke" into the limelight last week—after being discovered by eagle-eyed fans.

Watchers of the live Bald Eagle Cam, which has been trained on a nest along the Maine coast, got the scoop on scientists by being the first to spot a newborn chick rustling amid the branches. Researchers had previously thought the cold weather had made the pair of eggs in the nest unviable.

Almost instantly clips from the cam—being hosted by National Geographic magazine in partnership with the BioDiversity Research Institute—appeared on video-sharing sites such as YouTube, turning the rare bird into an Internet sensation.

(National Geographic News and National Geographic magazine are parts of the National Geographic Society.)

Catch a glimpse of some of the first footage of the baby bald eagle being tended by its parent in this unnarrated video clip from the live camera feed.