Golden eagles are back from Canada, spending the winter in the eastern U.S.
Researcher Trish Miller said there are probably around 5,000 east of the Mississippi River, compared to estimates of 1,000 to 2,500 when she and her husband, Michael Lanzone, began studying them in 2005. Other scientists have come up with similar figures.
Golden eagles are among North America’s largest birds of prey, some with wingspans broader than 7 feet (2.1 meters). They’re mostly brown, but are named for the golden feathers at the back of the head and neck. An estimated 100,000 to 200,000 live worldwide, including Europe, Asia and North Africa. In North America they’re far more numerous in the West, where an estimated 40,000 live or winter, but some can be found for at least part of the year in most of Canada and the United States, and parts of Mexico.
Miller, of Conservation Science Global in West Cape May, New Jersey, said the greatest numbers wintering in the eastern U.S. are probably along the Virginia-West Virginia state line, though she and Lanzone, of Cellular Tracking Technologies in Rio Grande, New Jersey, haven’t analyzed likely densities.
Hundreds of camera traps, with bait set in front of motion-sensitive game cameras, have documented them in every state east of the Mississippi River and cellular tracking tags have shown them venturing into others, she said.