Valentine's Day is just around the corner and love is in the air – for humans and birds alike.

A live webcam trained on a bald eagle nest in California's Big Bear Valley broadcast footage of two of the iconic American birds mating--or at least trying to mate--this week. It only lasted a few seconds.

The live video, recorded Thursday at 11:38 a.m., shows the male eagle furtively sidle up to the female, then hop to a branch in front of the female, let out a few squawks and flutter its wings, before swiftly jumping onto the back of the female for a few seconds.

"While it may have looked like rambunctious play, it was actually mating, or at least an attempt," a U.S. Forest Service press release said.

"When the underside of his tail went under her tail for a split second, that was the mating," Forest Service biologist Robin Eliason explained.

After the male hopping off the female, both eagles let out several more squawks.

"If you don't know what you're looking at, you wouldn't even know they're mating," added Forest Service spokesman Zachery Behrens.

Eliason said it's unclear whether the mating attempt was successful, but that other, "off-camera" mating attempts might result in fertilization.

The mating comes after the pair had already shown "bonding behavior" lately, which led Eliason to say egg laying might happen soon.

More:Bald eagles have been counted for decades. With binoculars, you can do it at these five spots.

If the female had an egg ready to be fertilized, and the mating was successful, she could lay a fertilized egg up to 10 days from now, Behrens explained.

This isn't the first time the live webcam has given the world a window into intimate bald eagle scenes. In January 2017, the camera showed an eagle laying two eggs in the same nest. Both hatched, but one of the young eagles died during a wind storm later in 2017.

The other grew strong enough to fly "and was seen flying around all summer with his mother," Behrens said.

The nonprofit group Friends of the Big Bear Valley installed the camera in 2016.

The eagle mating footage comes at a great time for the Forest Service, as the agency is trying to build awareness for an upcoming winter eagle count in Southern California that the public can help with. On Saturday, Feb. 9, anyone can join the effort at any of three locations: Silverwood Lake State Recreation Area, Lake Hemet and Lake Perris State Recreation Area. Earlier, the Forest Service had planned to count at five locations, but canceled two because of an incoming winter storm.

The resurgence of bald eagles in North America is widely considered a wildlife conservation achievement. The species was removed from the endangered species list in 2007.

Update: An earlier version of this story listed five locations for the Feb. 9 eagle counting events, but two were canceled because of a winter storm.