How Arizona’s bald eagles went from endangered to thriving
PEORIA, AZ (AZFamily)—The bald eagle population in Arizona is soaring to record numbers. Arizona had 25 nests in the 1970s, but that number has since quadrupled.
Caring for America’s favorite bird isn’t exactly the easiest of tasks. “It is a difficult prospect. Eagles do not put their nests in the easiest places to get too, but it is also definitely a rewarding experience,” said Kenneth “Tuk” Jacobson, the AZGFD raptor management coordinator. Tuk is one of the state’s bald eagle experts.
Arizona’s Family boarded a boat with Tuk and his crew as they checked on a nest at Lake Pleasant. “We want to make sure this population is robust and as stable as possible,” said Tuk. He took our crews to a restricted area of the lake. The state restricts certain areas near eagle nests to protect them from people. While the bird was taken off the endangered species list in 2007, it is still protected. Only permitted people can enter these areas.
“The big thing is we want to make sure they’re doing well and they don’t have problems with parasites in the nest. This is our chance to remove fishing line or fishing hooks from the nest if they bring in a fish that has them,” said Tuk.
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It did not take long for our team in the field to see the nest and an adult eagle perched at the top.
These nests are monitored by Game and Fish nest watchers like Audrey Jordon, who spend their day tracking the eagles’ movements. “We see where they are hunting, where they are perching, drinking water, taking a bath, anything they do, we record that,” she said.
This nest is on the side of a cliff. To get there, one crew member got geared up and started to repel down. His mission is to retrieve the three eaglets in the nest, two boys and a girl. All of them are around five weeks old. After putting safety gear on the eaglets themselves, they were brought up to Tuk, where he quickly took various measurements.
This crew also wanted to make sure the babies had a clean bill of health, specifically checking for signs of bird flu. “Bald eagles are one of the species that can be negatively impacted by bird flu,” said Tuk, “To date, we haven’t had any of them come back as positive, so that’s a good sign.”
Most importantly, this trip was to attach a metal blue band to the eaglets’ legs. This is no fashion statement; it’s so they can track them. “With a powerful scope, we should be able to read the band from a distance and know exactly which bird this is,” said Tuk.
The siblings were then safely returned to the nest, where the state can monitor them for the rest of their lives.
“87% of bald eagles nest within 150 kilometers of their nesting grounds or the area where they were raised in,” said Tuk while holding one of the eaglets. “Hopefully, we will see this guy in 5 years with a nest of his own producing young of its own.”
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