“Bald eagles are a real success story,” says Tom Collom, district wildlife biologist with the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife.
“Their numbers were extremely low for a bunch of different reasons, the primary one being the use of the pesticide DDT, which caused eggshell thinning and really hampered their reproduction. They also had some long-term changes in habitat and lost some of the large-diameter trees that they require for their nesting.”
Eventually, DDT was banned, and bald eagles received formal protection in 1978 under the Endangered Species Act.
Their rebound has been remarkable. In the 1950s, there were fewer than 500 nesting pairs in the lower United States. Now, there are more than 70,000.
Old-growth forests are an essential part of eagles’ habitat. They build their large nests — four to five feet across — in mature, tall pine trees, which are sturdier and have more branching.