A new federal report released last week shows U.S. bald eagle populations quadrupling over the course of a decade. It’s an encouraging sign of growth for one of America’s most iconic animals, which comes as eagle populations in Connecticut also reached record-setting levels last year.
The report from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service shows the number of breeding pairs of bald eagles have grown significantly since 2009.
And as breeding pairs grew, overall population numbers also went up. Biologists now estimate there are more than 300,000 individual bald eagles in the lower 48 states.
Here in Connecticut, bald eagles are also doing well.
Last year, the state logged the most active bald eagle territories on record.
“Our population numbers are increasing pretty rapidly,” said Brian Hess, a wildlife biologist with the state Department of Energy and Environmental Protection. “In 2020, we had 72 active eagle territories. So that’s nests and attempted nests throughout the state.”
“That’s just the ones that we know about. There’s likely many more that we don’t,” Hess said. “But to put that into perspective, in 2010, we had 23 nesting territories.”
Going back to the mid-1990s, bald eagles were an even more rare sight in Connecticut. In 1994, the state DEEP listed only one active bald eagle territory. But years of state and federal conservation work paid off. Bans on harmful chemicals like DDT and the removal of other pollutants from waterways helped drive the recovery.
In 2007, when the bald eagle was removed from Endangered Species Act protection, the federal government said there were more than 9,700 breeding pairs, a striking increase from the known all-time low of 417 pairs in 1963.
Latest federal data now show more than 71,000 breeding pairs in the lower 48 states.
“I think at the end of the day it really does demonstrate that with concerted environmental conservation actions,” Hess said, “we really can move the needle on some of these problems.”
Hess said as the charismatic birds move into more populated environments, volunteers have been crucial to the state’s efforts to track and conserve bald eagle populations. “We’re seeing them a lot more on the edges of people’s yards, in more urban settings,” Hess said, “starting to be tied in with where people are.”
Residents who spot a bald eagle nest are encouraged to report the sighting to the state wildlife division.
“If you see eagles carrying sticks or clumps of grass, especially at this time of year, it usually means that there’s a nest nearby,” Hess said. “We really do try to gather as much information as we can about our nesting population of eagles here in Connecticut, so if you report them to the wildlife division it would be greatly appreciated.”
