Alabama’s last documented nesting pair of bald eagles was in 1962. By 1972, only 480 nesting pairs of bald eagles were left in the United States, and the species appeared to be headed toward extinction. According to a recent survey, today, there are 700 to as many as 1000 bald eagles that winter every year in Alabama. This remarkable species recovery in the state was due to a 1940 law that banned the killing of bald eagles, the 1972 banning of the pesticide DDT, and restoration efforts by the state and efforts by the Alabama Department of Conservation and Natural Resources (ADCNR) to reintroduce the eagles into the state.
Since the 1980s, the state has celebrated the return of the eagles to Alabama by hosting Eagle Awareness Weekend events at Lake Guntersville State Park. The three-day 2023 events are scheduled for January 20-22, January 27-29, and February 3-5.
Greg Lein is the Alabama State Parks Director.
Lein said that packages during Eagle Awareness Weekends include lodging, two breakfasts, one dinner, a welcome packet, VIP access to presentations from experts in eagles and other raptors, discounts at the restaurant and gift shop, and photo excursions around the park.
“Our lodge, campground, and chalets often fill up quickly for these weekends, so we encourage people to make reservations and join us at Lake Guntersville State Park for what we believe will be another amazing year of Eagle Awareness Weekends,” Lein said.
When the eagle weekends began in the mid-1980s, visitors would see eagles that had migrated from other states to Lake Guntersville for the winter months. Today many eagles live in Alabama year-round, and participants view both resident eagles and nonresident eagles (snowbirds) that visit the lake and forest habitats during the winter.
Mercedes Maddox is a Nongame Biologist with the ADCNR’s Wildlife and Freshwater Fisheries (WFF) Division. She will be one of the presenters during the Eagle Awareness Weekends.
“Historically, we had a large population of eagles in Alabama, just like the rest of the U.S.,” Maddox said. “But as early as the late 1800s, that population started to decline. That was primarily due to human intervention.”
The Bald Eagle Protection Act was passed in 1940 to protect bald eagles. It now also protects golden eagles.
Eagles then suffered a second setback that almost ended the species when the pesticide DDT became widely used. DDT was used on crops to minimize losses from insects and to control mosquitos to prevent malaria and yellow fever. The insecticide, however, got in the fish. Bald eagles consume large quantities of fish, so the pesticide accumulated in the bodies of the birds. There it impeded the ability of the birds to deposit calcium in their eggs, leading to weaker, softer shells that were crushed by the brooding birds resulting in greater nesting failure for the eagles leading to population decline.
“By the time it made it to the top of the food chain, it was having direct and indirect impacts on bald eagles,” Maddox said. “One of the things it caused was the eagles’ eggshells to thin. They would lay the eggs, but when they sat on the nest to incubate them, the eggs would crack and never hatch. The eagles were building nests, laying eggs, and producing no young.”
DDT was banned in 1972. In 1982 the WFF started its Nongame Wildlife Program. In 1984 Alabama joined the multi-state Bald Eagle Restoration Program.
“We used a technique called hacking to grow the bald eagle population,” Maddox explained. “Hacking is where biologists force an immature bird to take its first flight in a desired area. They would take eaglets from Florida and Alaska and release them in specific locations with depleted populations.”
Alabama participated in the hacking program until 1992. Ninety-one eagles were released from hacking towers throughout the state in that period. Today the eagles nest in Alabama.
“There was a nest attempt in 1987, but the first successful nest occurred in 1991,” Maddox said. “That was the first successful nest in 30 years. It was a huge, huge success for the program as a whole.”
By 2006 there were 77 nests found in the state. The eagles have continued to increase since then, so many of them that they are difficult to count.
“You can now find eagles in every single county,” Maddox said. “It is one of the top recovery stories in the nation.”
Alabama’s restoration program was funded through the Pittman-Robertson Act, which levies an excise tax on firearms and ammunition.
Now that the state of Alabama has restored the bald eagle to the state, more attention is being focused on its cousin, the golden eagle.
“A lot of people don’t know we have golden eagles that winter in Alabama,” Maddox said. “The Golden Eagle Project began about ten years ago. It’s a multi-state project as well, as with any good conservation effort. So, partners are heavily involved in this. We use simple game cameras to monitor where eagles are occurring throughout the state. We’ve set up cameras at 21 different locations during the program. We’ve had golden eagle sightings at 10 locations, with the most southern location at Upper State Special Opportunity Area near Jackson.”
Maddox said several golden eagles have been captured and fitted with transmitter tags to track their movement to determine migration pathways and habitats the eagles are accessing in Alabama. She said 19 tags have been attached since 2013, and six remain active.
“One of those tags still active is on a bird we’ve named Natchez, a bird that was captured at Freedom Hills,” Maddox said. “She travels from way up in Canada near Hudson Bay. Other birds migrate to northern parts of Ontario, and others go to Newfoundland. They migrate a long way to get to Alabama every winter.”
“Golden eagles are most often found in forested areas,” she said. “They feed on carrion, which is one of their primary food sources in the winter, but they also feed on small mammals.
Maddox said WFF depends on the public to report eagle sightings and nesting activity.
Email mercedes.maddox@dcnr.alabama.gov to report any eagle activity or possible Bald Eagle Protection Act violations.
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