Bald eagles are coming back in a strong way



In the lower 48 states, there were probably fewer than 500 nesting pairs. Today bald eagles are back. It’s no longer unusual to see a bald eagle.


The Pennsylvania Game Commission recently released information that parallels what has happened in other states. The number of active bald eagle nests this year is 206 in 51 of the state’s 67 counties. This number will almost certainly increase as reports trickle in through the summer.

In 2011, for example, preliminary surveys reported 203 nests, but the final total was 217. Eagle nests in wild, remote terrain can be difficult to locate. So today seeing a bald eagle isn’t the big deal it was 30 years ago — unless it’s your first.

I get emails and letters every year from readers who have seen their first bald eagle, and their notes are peppered with adjectives such as “awesome, amazing, and magnificent.”


Even Carl Roe, executive director of the Game Commission, is impressed. In a statement he says, “…I can’t imagine our outdoors without them. Their presence heightens every trip afield and a chance encounter with a passing bald eagle is almost always the highlight of anyone’s day. Eagles are simply that unforgettable!”

I agree. I’ve seen bald eagles many times in many places. I even had one fly over my house about 20 years ago. And each time I see an eagle, I’m thrilled. And when I’m with a group, everyone thrills at the sight of an eagle.

Pileated woodpeckers, bluebirds, and even scarlet tanagers get yawns when an eagle flies by. With a wingspan of almost seven feet and weighing 10 pounds or more, bald eagles are huge and powerful, a fitting national symbol. Though Pennsylvania’s eagle nests are scattered around the state, they are most frequently found near big rivers and lakes.

Most populated


Allegheny County (Pittsburgh) has one nest this year and Philadelphia County has three. Furthermore, the bald eagles’ recovery is not limited to Pennsylvania. In New York, the eagle population jumped from four pairs in the 1980s to 170 breeding pairs today.



Even mountainous West Virginia has had as many as 19 breeding pairs. Many factors contributed to the recovery of bald eagles, but several stand out. Federal law, for example, gives bald eagles complete protection.

Healthy eggs

The days of widespread, senseless slaughter are over. The understanding that DDT cripples bald eagle reproduction was critical. This led to a DDT ban that enables eagles to lay and incubate healthy eggs.

DDT caused egg shells to thin so they cracked under the weight of incubating adults. Then many states initiated aggressive reintroduction campaigns to jump start the declining populations. Pennsylvania’s seven-year bald eagle restoration program, begun in 1983, introduced 88 eaglets from Canada. New York and New Jersey followed a similar strategy.

As these birds reached reproductive maturity in four or five years, they began to breed successfully. The rest is history. Credit state and federal wildlife agencies for the bald eagle’s recovery.

In 1982 bald eagles were critically endangered. In 1994, they were upgraded from endangered to threatened status. In 2007, they were delisted nationally as threatened. Today, they nest in 51 of Pennsylvania’s 67 counties and in all states except Hawaii. That is success by any measure.



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