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The eggs have hatched.

Maybe.

Naples city officials on Monday said they believe the eggs within a Cooper’s hawk nest high above the construction site of a new downtown parking garage hatched last week. Mike Bauer, the city’s natural resource manager, said he had expected the eggs to hatch on May 5.

That date would be in line with the 30-day incubation period for the hawks, Bauer said. The city first noticed the hawks were nesting on Sixth Avenue South and Eighth Avenue South in April, days before work was set to begin on the city’s new parking garage.

Bauer said he saw the female bird moving around Monday morning, but has not been able to catch a glimpse of the chicks.

“(She’s) moving around the nest,” Bauer said. “I’m expecting there’s babies in there, (but) I just need to sit there and watch them bring some food.”

That’s not unusual, said Lynda White, spokeswoman with the Audubon Center for Birds of Prey in Maitland, Fla.

“The babies are probably too small to see,” White said.

That won’t be true for long. White said the birds grow fast, and people passing by can expect to see the birds about a week after they’ve hatched.

The city discovered the birds in April, just days before work on downtown’s newest parking garage was scheduled to begin. Work was put on hold until Naples City Manager Bill Moss deemed that the construction would not be hazardous to the nest.

Moss made the decision to resume construction on April 4, one day after a Fifth Avenue South merchant spotted the nest on the corner of the work site.

On April 7, Moss made the decision to move forward with noninvasive work on the garage. Contractors drilled holes and poured concrete into them for test pilings. Construction crews moved the test site 160 feet away from the nest, and contractors didn’t expect the drilling to cause harmful noise or vibrations.

The birds are protected by the federal Migratory Bird Treaty Act, and Moss has said he had a “high level of confidence” that the work wouldn’t cause the pair of Cooper’s hawks to abandon the nest.

If the birds had abandoned the nest, the city could be violating the federal act, which carries a penalty of up to $5,000 and one year in jail.

Bauer said he isn’t concerned about not seeing the chicks quite yet.

“I’ll start worrying by the end of the month if I don’t (see them),” he said. “Two weeks from now, if I don’t see those little guys hopping around (then I’ll worry).”

He isn’t just monitoring the nest at Sixth Avenue South and Eighth Street South. He’s also watching an active nest on Broad Avenue South. Bauer said the eggs were expected to hatch around the same time as the ones at the parking garage site.

Work on the garage is expected to begin again in June, or as soon as the hawks leave their nest, Moss said.