U.S. bald eagle population on the rebound

Published 9:00 pm Saturday, April 29, 2006

Eagles build nests in February, lay eggs around mid-March, and have hatchlings by the end of May. The young birds leave the nest about the middle of July.

Until December 2001, the state barred activity from Feb. 15 to July 15 near nesting areas.

In 2001, there were an estimated 4,400 bald eagles in Washington state.

However, biologists focus on the 733 breeding pairs because many of the 1,900 juveniles counted don’t survive, and 1,000 others fly between several states.

“They don’t contribute to the recovery of the population,” bald eagle specialist Julie Stofel said.

The birds hit a low with only 417 bald eagle pairs in the lower 48 states in the early 1960s. The birds were declared endangered in 1967, according to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.

The pesticide DDT was banned in 1973, and bald eagle populations have battled back.

Their status improved from endangered to threatened in 1995. An effort to remove them from the endangered species list has been under way since 1999 and led to protective guidelines proposed in February.

There are at least 7,066 nesting pairs in the lower 48 states, according to Fish and Wildlife.