I can fly higher than an eagle, you are the wind beneath my wings. –Larry Henry

By Roger Childs

The bald eagle is an iconic bird native to North America. In 1782 it was adopted as a symbol of the new nation and at the time there were probably 100,000 in the eastern states. The eagle features on the Great Seal of the USA and it has an olive branch in one claw and arrows in the other.  In many cultures through history from the Romans forward, eagles have been regarded as symbols of strength.

So it was unthinkable that this majestic American bird would be eradicated, but it nearly happened. Hunting and habitat destruction were key factors in the bald eagle’s decline which saw numbers drop in 1963 to an estimated 417 nesting pairs. However, the key factor was the pesticide DDT which weakened the shells of their eggs. Fortunately the insecticide was banned in 1972 but its impact lingered in the environment for a time.

The cruel fate of the passenger pigeon 

Scientists estimate that there were probably three to five billion native pigeons when European settlers first arrived in North America.  They used to darken daytime skies when they flew overhead, and one flock is said to have taken three days to pass overhead in Ohio. 

But they were easy targets for indiscriminate shooting and were eaten by the early settlers. The last one died in 1914 in the Cincinnati Zoo.

The iconic bald eagle

  • It’s not bald at all but has white feathers on its head and around its neck.
  • It has a bright yellow beak with a sharp point for ripping away the flesh of prey.
  • It can weigh up to 6.5kg.
  • Its yellow-green eyes can spot prey from 3km away.
  • It has a wing span of 2.5m and can soar for hours on up-draft thermals.
  • In diving for fish it hits the water at about 160 kph.
  • The eagle’s is a carnivore raptor and fish make up about 90% of its diet.
  • They are attentive parents and both parents provide food for their young.

The road to recovery

In many ways the eagle’s resilience mirrors Tina’s own refusal to succumb to the many obstacles she faced. –Journalist Melissa Hobson

Cornell University biology graduate Tina Morris was keen to help the bird back from its brush with extinction. To succeed she knew that she needed to be a foster-mother in raising chicks. So she construct a tower as a temporary nesting place (eyrie) which resembled the real thing away from the public eye. The Montezuma National Wildlife Park, 60km from Cornell, was the perfect place. 

The location was near tall trees and water sources which would be an ideal habitat for the fledgling birds to ultimately nest in. She gradually gathered five chicks and began the process of raising them. In the wild, eagle parents teach their young to feed by ripping open the flesh of prey for eating. But Tina decided to let “her babies” work that out for themselves. Occasionally chicks would fall out of her eyrie trying to fly and Tina would need to take them back up the ladder without being torn apart! 

One of her chicks had a broken leg on arrival but made a great recovery and eventually lived for an incredible 36 years and produced an amazing 70 young!

Success is sweet

After a few ups and downs when Tina despaired that she would ever succeed, fledged eagles started to fly to the nearby tall trees. With a back-up team and other repopulation projects which followed Tina’s model, there were 426 breeding pairs in New York and 917 in nearby New England by 2023. An important outcome which verified the success of her was the removal of the bald eagle from the US endangered species list. They now live in every state on the America mainland.

It was a fantastic result after many years of patient effort and amongst various acknowledgements Tina was made an honorary Iroquois. Many Native American groups regard the bald eagle as sacred.

In every country in the world men and women have been the great predators and hundreds of birds have been wiped out. New Zealand’s magnificent Haast Eagle, possibly the largest ever, is one of many big birds which no longer soar high above the Earth.

Many sources were used in putting together this piece, however I am especially indebted to Melissa Hobson’s article Reach for the Sky in the February 2025 issue of BBC Wildlife