TheBaldEagle
By Nadine Karime & Mohamad Alameddine

This striking bird has a black body and a large white head and tail. The Bald Eagle can live up to 30 years. It mates for life, and only lives in groups during the winter months. Bald Eagles are found in the lower 48 American states and Alaska near open water, their main food source.

The Bald Eagle is also known as the American eagle, the white-headed eagle, and the white-headed sea-eagle. Balk is a synonym for white, and does not mean featherless.

A Bald Eagle is from 30 to 31 inches in length and weights about 8 to 14 pounds. Wingspan for the birds varies between 6 to 8 feet. Female birds are slightly larger than males. Adult birds have the familiar blackish brown plumage, white tail and head, and bright yellow hooked beak and feet. Feathers cover the upper part of the Bald Eagle’s legs. Powerful black talons on grasping toes complete the bird. Young eagles have longer tails and white feathers on their underbody. By their fourth or fifth year, they will have adult plumage. Bald Eagles have about 7,000 feathers on their body.

Breeding Bald Eagles are territorial, and defend the nesting area from other birds. They mate for life, but if their mate dies they will chose another. Nests are called aeries, and are built and added to year after year. The largest

nest on record was in Vermilion, Ohio. It was used around 35 years until destroyed by a storm. It weighed around 2 tons.

Nesting season is from November to April. The female lays 2 or 3 eggs, and both birds take turns incubating them. The eggs will hatch in 34 to 37 days. Depending on the supply of food, often only one chick lives, but occasionally two or all three will survive. The chicks leave the nest at 12 weeks old, but stay with parent birds for another month learning hunting and survival techniques. The young birds will reach maturity in 5 years.

Bald Eagles are predators that eat fish, carrion, small mammals, and waterfowl. They will migrate in the winter to stay near open water, including dams. Because it is at the top of the food chain, the Bald Eagle has suffered directly from the use of the chemical DDT by farmers, lead shot used by hunters, eating prey containing lead pellets, and by pollution.

The Bald Eagle Protection Act of 1940 was the first legal protection for the bird. In 1972, DDT was banned for most uses in the United States. This single regulation enormously helped the Bald Eagle’s recovery. In 1995, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service down-listed Bald Eagles from endangered to threatened. Currently, accidental deaths still occur from DDT residue in the environment, poaching, and eating carrion containing lead pellets. Althoughlead pellets are forbidden to shoot waterfowl, it is still used for bigger game. Ingesting only three lead pellets will kill an eagle.

The Bald and Golden Eagle Protection Act prohibits the take, transport, sale, barter, trade, import, export, and possession of eagles. It is illegal for anyone without the proper permit to collect eagles and eagle parts, nests, or eggs. Possession of a feather or other body part is a felony, with fines reaching up to $10,000 and/or imprisonment.