Bald eagles are thriving again after near extinction
48 comments
·February 23, 2025PeterWhittaker
jandrewrogers
They were not even endangered in the US but in the contiguous US. There was always a large population in Alaska such that people were paid to cull them.
Many "endangered" animals in the US are not endangered in the sense of extinction but in the sense that they are leaving some part of their native range. They are often "endangered in $LOCALE", not endangered generally.
odyssey7
I feel that eagles that can fly large distances are in a different category from land animals, which have greater pressures to adapt their lineages to particular geographic ranges, to specialize within the species.
For example, the Florida Panther: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Florida_panther
willturman
This is so unbelievably lazy.
You even say this in reference to Eagles, which are a migratory species whose range crosses hemispheres, as if the contiguous United States is some small aside on that path.
“Don’t worry about the regional extinction of a migratory apex predator because they’re conveniently thriving in dumpsters behind the McDonalds in a town in Alaska.”
null
lukevp
Here in Oregon we have a lot of them, but it never gets old seeing them! We usually see at least a couple on our way to the coast from Portland. Earlier this week, my wife and I saw a mating pair fly high over this field by our house and spiral down towards the ground, holding talons. It was amazing, they are huge incredible birds. I’m so glad to live somewhere that has lots of public land and habitat preservation so my family can enjoy the clean air, water, skies, and trees, as can all of the wildlife we have.
ChrisMarshallNY
We have them on Long Island (New York). There's a pair that live in Centerport (a fairly well-to-do neighborhood, nearby), that even have their own Facebook group.
They eat eels. Lots of eels.
I understand they are fairly numerous, up the Hudson Valley.
jandrewrogers
Plenty of them in Seattle too, I've seen them flying over downtown many times. They like to sit in the trees at Discovery Park.
darknavi
We have a bloat slip on Lake Sammamish and there is a family living in one of the giant trees near the slip. Marymoor park + the lake seem like a great space for them to hunt and live.
tombert
I'm jealous, I think I've only ever seen one at a zoo twenty years ago. I think they're extremely cool looking birds, I would love to see one in the wild, but they don't appear to hang out much in NYC.
observationist
They're comically obnoxious - they have annoying screeches, almost like a squeaky straw. If they get acclimated to people, will steal food and anything that remotely looks like food. They're smart, in the way that most big birds are smart, but rarely sociable and curious like ravens.
Kinda majestic and noble looking, though.
mlhpdx
I love the sound, and we live with it pretty much every day as they roost in our fir trees while hunting. We’re up on a hill about a mile from the Willamette River and they seem to be able to see when snacks appear (no idea really, but they fly with purpose in that direction).
The really scary birds are the occasional Falcons that move so fast and so low I’m both startled and confused when they buzz the yard.
tombert
Them not being sociable makes them kind of more mysterious and therefore kind of more majestic as well.
It doesn't surprise me that they're smart. It feels like the insult "bird brain" is decidedly a pretty bad insult, because birds aren't stupid.
pfdietz
> they have annoying screeches, almost like a squeaky straw
The majestic call you hear in ads with bald eagles is actually that of the red-tailed hawk.
technothrasher
We only have about 76 breeding pairs here in Massachusetts, but I do see a few fly over my house every once in a while.
THroaway225
They like suburban Winnipeg. They'll circle dogs for a while before giving up and flying away.
SonicScrub
> before giving up and flying away.
Careful! That's not always a given!
bliteben
In Astoria, Oregon on Wireless road you can find nearly 100 in a tree. I'm not sure why they are in such high numbers, but you can often see them scavenging fields where seafood waste (shells) are dumped.
bredren
There is a big nest above the Oaks Bottom wetland. It is strange to have bald eagles hanging out as a normal part of the area.
howard941
Lots of them in Florida, at least around the golf courses and wooded areas.
iammiles
Adding to this thread: I see them a ton around Cathedral Park in St Johns.
null
apercu
In 90's I saw bald eagles for the first time (I mostly grew up in DFW, TX) in the Mississippi Valley between WI and Iowa, later in backbone ridge state park, where the valleys are so steep the eagles are flying below you when you're on a spur. It was amazing to me because, as a child in the 70's and 80's we were always hearing about DDT and endangered eagles. Fast forward ~30 years from the early 90's (after a long stint in Canada) I've moved to semi-rural Wisconsin and I see eagles monthly, and closeup (I see red-tail hawks daily, Cooper hawks weekly - one killed one of my chickens last fall), pheasants weekly and sandhill cranes for months every year.
Seems like the conservation efforts for eagles actually worked, and I can't be more pleased.
(Hey, I like birds, ok? I even kept a log with my partner for a while of all the birds we were able to identify at our Bir feeders and on walks).
busyant
Saw 3 of them today in central Connecticut. Never gets old.
About 2 years ago, a juvenile baldie landed on a pier 4.0 meters from me (according to my camera sensor).
https://photos.app.goo.gl/6cUhtJggrVn5KakX6
I thought the dang thing was gonna rip me to shreds. But it just looked me over for about 10 seconds and then rendezvoused with an older eagle over the Connecticut River.
pbmango
Growing up in Buffalo New York, I only once as a kid saw one flying while on a camping trip in a remote state park. Now, you see one almost every day on the coastline of lake Erie. They are so much bigger than other birds that you will notice even if you are not on the lookout. Their scale is astounding compared to sea gulls.
They have also come back to the Potomac and Washington DC which is nice.
temporallobe
Can confirm. I see them almost every day in central Florida. I live near a so-called bird sanctuary and wildlife preserve so maybe that accounts for sone if it.
Exoristos
When I was a kid growing up in eastern Kentucky, I went on a hike through isolated country about five or ten miles from home. Was way up on what was basically a small mountain and saw a bald eagle circle overhead. Naturally, I told everybody, but they thought I was lying or an idiot. Now nobody would have any reason to doubt it. Amazing to witness such a comeback in our own lifetimes!
eschulz
I pretty much see them on a daily basis in the Driftless Area of Wisconsin and Illinois these days, which is great because I don't think I had one sighting for the first 30 or so years of my life.
null
apercu
I'm South of Madison. Love the Driftless!
7thaccount
There are some bald eagle cams where you can watch the baby eagles in the nests. They eat a lot of fish.
voakbasda
Bald eagles occasionally visit my farm. On multiple occasions, I have seen them swoop in and carry off a duck, leaving almost no evidence. They eventually eat my entire flock, so I periodically need to restock.
Even when I catch them in the act, I cannot yell at them for it, because that would be "hazing". They are federally prohibited from any sort of interference, so they have learned that there is a consequence-free dine-and-dash buffet here.
These experiences enlightened me as to why some farmers prefer the "3S" approach to predator management: Shoot, Shovel, and Shut up.
eYrKEC2
A similar thing happens in Greece where if antiquities are found on your property , you want to properly bury it immediately or risk going bankrupt on your building project. Not sure on the details, but this is what my Greek boss told me once.
tshaddox
This is good news, although the only "news" here seems to be the removal from the New Jersey endangered species list.
The success of conservation efforts were already being widely lauded in the mid-1990s in Missouri (and deliberately emphasized in the public school curriculum), and bald eagles were common sights particularly near the Missouri or Mississippi River.
dejv
Similar story in Europe with white tailed eagles, which are quite similar in size. They were extinct in my area for maybe 60 years and recently returned and even started to hatch.
Canada says "you're welcome". (Quite some time ago US and Canadian researchers worked to trap and transport eagles from northern Canada, where there will still several thousand; those birds helped restore the population in the contiguous states.)
I've not been able to find sources to indicate the bird's conservation status in Canada at that time. As far as I can tell, every mention of the birds being on the verge of extinction should always be followed by "in the US".