38 replies to this topic

[goofy166]

Bald Eagle

[gdwiebe]

Nce image. It would help id if you could include an immature bald eagle.

 

Graham

[admin]

We are adding females and juveniles for all birds. Stay tuned and thanks for the comment, glad you like it.

[admin]

Cool Facts

• Humans are the most important source of mortality for this threatened species.
• The Bald Eagle isn't bald. The use of "bald" in its name is actually a shortening of the word "piebald," which describes something that is spotted or patchy, especially in black and white. Because the Bald Eagle has a dark brown body and a white head and tail, piebald is an apt description.
• Bald Eagles occasionally hunt cooperatively, with one individual flushing prey towards another.
• The immature Bald Eagle has a prolonged period of exploration lasting for four years. Some young from Florida have wandered north to Michigan, and birds from California have reached Alaska.
  

[ides_omarch]

Did you know that many small birds develop a symbiotic relationship with eagles and actually use the same nest?  Of course, the little birds are living on a lower floor in the nest.  The eagles' eating habits result in lots of small insects being attracted to the nest.  The little birds help with control of the insects and benefit from the protection of their much larger neighbor where predators are concerned.

 Also, since eagles normally use the same nest year after year, they can get very big.  This is because the adult pair is always adding new materials to the nest.  They do this in the fall, when they return to the nest to make essential repairs prior to winter.  They do this again in the spring when they are rebonding after a period apart, and in preparation for the new clutch to be laid.  As they will be adding new materials to the interior part of the nest to cover up the old dirty materials, they also add new edging materials which make the nest taller.  A nest can become so big, if built in a tree, that it can cause the tree to collapse.  The largest nest ever found was about 30 years old and weight about as much as a small car...about 1700 pounds.

 

[ides_omarch]

Mitchell Waite:

• Humans are the most important source of mortality for this threatened species

While the Bald Eagle was put on the endangered species list in the 1960s, it was never listed as such in Canada.  However, it was recently taken off the endangered list and put on the threatened species list.  It is still threatened because people will still kill them.  Just Thursday, a man on Vancouver Island shot two.  In the old days, man did not realized that the reason for fewer bald eagles was loss of habitat, as well as, human competition with eagles for food.  Then, in the early part of the 20th century, a bounty was placed on bald eagles, because fishermen saw them as a competition for fish.  Over 153,000 eagles were deliberately killed.  It is estimated that there were somewhere around 5 million eagles in North America before  European settlement.  At present there are approximately 700,000.  They made a dramatic rebound in the last 40 years.

[eilee]

I am looking for information on the Golden Eagle, could not find it with this search.  I saw one along the highway beside Marfa, Texas over the weekend eating roadkill, it was the biggest bird I have ever seen that close!  Wow it was one huge bird.  Are Golden Eagles the same as Brown Eagles?  This one was dark brown. 

[raptrlvr]

What kind of info do you want on the golden eagle? I have one that I use for falconry. We only have 2 kinds of eagles in the US and thats the bald eagle and the golden eagle. Some people call the golden the mexican eagle for some reason. I have also heard them called American eagle, but, as far as I know they are just golden eagles. Here are a couple shots of my male golden eagle.

 

[raptrlvr]

 

[strato77]

I get such excitement every single time I run across a bald eagle even though I have seen hundreds of them.  I was stationed in the aleutians for a couple of years and they were everywhere you turned.  I would go fishing and the other side of the river would be full of eagles waiting for the salmon.

Now I am living in the foothills of the smokies and have located a favorite spot for them.  I have seen 12 in one visit to the river area.  The strange part is that

I have managed to only spot two adults and the rest were all young ranging from 1-4 years.  Really wonder if the fishing is bringing the young ones in or

is all one extended family since the young ones vary from 1-4 years.  Here is a photo of an adult one that I spotted today.

 

[Scsh]

I've never seen a Bald Eagle in the wild. Yesterday we were blessed to see a pair.

They are awesome

[Seattle]

If you want to take a trip up here we can give you directions where you can find maybe 100 if you want to look for them.  We saw 64 last week and we didn't work at it, just saw them along side the roads in the trees.  But you still have to stop and look at em, no matter how many you see!

[Scsh]

Thank you, maybe we should visit our family there!

Today we saw the same birds, and their nest.

Is there a reason why I cannot upload a picture here? It just wouldn't work

[mmisland]

If your interested in Bald Eagles this is a cool live webcam in Hampton Roads, Virginia. 

http://www.wvec.com/.../eagle-cam.html

I hope it's ok to post this.

[mmisland]

First egg hatched at 1:10 this afternoon..how exciting.

[sunnyak]

We are having a real problem with bald eagles this year.  They have wiped out the duck population on the lake, made off with the neighbor's cat and a pug dog.  Yesterday, one swooped me while I was on the dock and almost nailed me.    How can one persuade them to go away and live somewhere else.

[raptrlvr]

Maybe the eagles are trying to persuade you to go away and live somewhere else.

[Curlybird]

raptrlvr:

Maybe the eagles are trying to persuade you to go away and live somewhere else.

Good one, Raptrlvr!  

[Bird Whisperer]

Mitchell Waite:

Cool Facts

• The Bald Eagle isn't bald. The use of "bald" in its name is actually a shortening of the word "piebald," which describes something that is spotted or patchy, especially in black and white. Because the Bald Eagle has a dark brown body and a white head and tail, piebald is an apt description.

I had actually learned that Bald was a corruption of an Old English Word "Balde", meaning white-headed. Thus, the old Englishmen were calling it a White-Headed Eagle, until somebody called it "Bald" instead -- and it stuck.

[PDC]

Since I live not too far away from quaker ridge hawks commonly fly over my house. About 2 weeks ago during the raptor migration a large bald eagle flew and soared over my house. Quite strange to see one here over my house! Even in migration time!