laloggia 1 The birds species as a whole have declined over the years, and most people agree that “humans are the number one reason for the birds decline”(RED LIST). Our nation’s symbol of freedom, the bald eagle,was once endangered. The eagle was endangered from habitat loss,poaching, and other eagles but now bald eagle populations are thriving. The bald eagle is a very easy bird to distinct from other birds. the bald eagle has white feathers only on its head and tail. The main body of the eagle is sometimes referred to as black but once you get closer you will see that the true color is brown.
The bald eagle is a very large bird but it is second biggest bird in the us, the biggest bird is the california condor. the eagle has a very large wingspan of 6 feet to 7 and a half feet long. Most often eagles are in between these two numbers. The bald eagle has a very long range of habitat it goes from the mexican borders to us borders and then canada’s borders. The bald eagle spends most of its time near water sources. the eagle will find a tall tree and make a nest on the top of it.
The eagle will try and go back every year to the same nest but most often will build a new nest around the primary list. the eagle will approximately take up 1,700-10,000 acres of land in its lifetime(starved rock). The bald eagle is not picky about food sources. it will eat almost anything that is dead or alive, but the eagle must be within reason of its body size because eagles can only pick up around 6 pounds,14 pounds at the most. the eagle will mainly eat fish because they live by the water most of the time, but eagles have been known to eat rodents of small to medium side.
They will eat an injured animal if they can find it and they will also scavenge for food. bald eagles also have excellent eyesight for finding food. .if food is scarce bald eagles will eat other bald eagles to survive. And if food is scarce during mating season the eagle will eat its own eaglets to survive because she can always have more babies. eagles only mate once a year usually during late february or early march, most other north american birds lay at different times of the year then eagles, eagles are the only birds in north america to lay around late february. nce an eagle finds a mate that eagle will stay with that mate for life until one of them dies. once eagles find a mate they will go make a nest where usually the female was born.
They will repadetled use this nest year after year and will just add more material every year to the nest. once eagles build their nest the female usually lays 2-3 eggs per year. once the eggs have been incubated the chick that usually hatches first is the most fitted to survive because it has gotten a head start before other chicks. he other chick’s will often die because the bigger chick takes the food. eagles have greatly increased their numbers. form the early 20th century eagles were well in the hundred of thousand and rising, but many people had killed them for fun and false teaching of eagles taking children and livestock, eagles numbers went down so far that there were only 1 nesting pair of eagles in some states.
fish and wildlife estimated that there were only around 500 mating pairs in the lower 48 states of the us. ut in more recent years many eagles populations have improved tremendously and are rising each year, through the latest observation through U. S. fish and wildlife was in 2007. they estimated that there were currently in the U. S. there were “69,000”bald eagles(jacurie) DDT is one of the main causes of the bald eagles decline(Dickerson). DDT is a very powerful insecticide. DDT was used a lot in the aid of trying to get rid of mosquitoes that were causing Malaria(ddt-a brief history). it was also used as a farmed pesticide in his or her crops.
They used DDT a lot on their crops and the Eagles ate the animals that ate plants and were infected with it. Once DDT is in the Eagles system it is very dangerous to the Eagles reproduction. It doesn’t harm adults it harms the Calcium when Eagles make eggs. The eggs usually become weak and and either the eaglet dies or in the egg and never hatches or the eggs will get crushed when the mother sits on them. DDT was also very deadly on the environment. It affected many birds and other animals that ate plants for food.