The NYU community welcomed the hawks back home this weekend with the reinstallation of the hawkcam.

Two years ago, a pair of hawks began making a nest outside the window of NYU President John Sexton’s office. Since then the hawks have been widely popular within the community and have been followed through a livestream sponsored by The New York Times. This year, the Times will no longer sponsor the hawkcam, but NYU is picking up where they left off.

“Over the last two years, [the Times’] hosting of the hawkcam caused a large and loyal community of hawk watchers to develop,” said NYU spokesman John Beckman. “We … set up the hawkcam again in response to that community’s enthusiasm and loyalty.”

Christopher James, account executive in public affairs at NYU, worked with the Times to install the hawkcam, which went up this past weekend.

“The Times very kindly lent us the equipment that has been used the last couple of years — we’re grateful for that,” said Beckman.

The free livestream of the hawks has been published on livestream.com. The website also features a chat room which enables the community watchers to chat with one another. In addition to the chat room, viewers can pause the livestream or view it in full screen.

CAS freshman Shaniah Stewart said that the hawkcam will bring awareness to animals.

“Many people don’t realize the impact of the environment beyond the lethal chemicals we are exposed to. Animals are a major contributor to a thriving environment. Individuals are unaware of the animals whose habitats we invade. Because of this, their population is declining,” said Stewart.

“If we were given a glimpse of daily moments like these that we rarely think about or are altogether oblivious to, we might reconsider several of our choices regarding infrastructure.”

There are now three eggs in the nest. The first egg appeared two weeks ago and the third egg appeared a week ago, according to Beckman.

“The hawk family is a part of NYU. It’s a family as far as I’m concerned and I think the hawkcam is great for the community,” said LSP freshman Min Lin.

Neela Qadir is a deputy university editor. Email her at [email protected].