Oh Dem Baldies-- Part 3

At the Mississippi Valley Welcome Center, we were givem a piece of paper to watch local eagles in their nest on the Alcoa Eagle Cam.

www.alcoa.com/eaglecam.

Well worth a watch.


Some more info on bald eagles from Eagle Fact-Finer Statistics.


MATING AND BREEDING

** The bald eagle mates for life.

** Eagle pairs often return to the same nest year after year.

** The largest recorded eagle nest was 20 feet high, 10 feet wide, & weighed 2 tons. (I wonder how they weighed it?)

** Male & female alternate sitting on the eggs.

** Eagles often nest within 100 miles of where they were born.


HUNTING HABITS

** Fish make up 60-90% of their diet.

** Eagles can fly 30-40 mph during normal flight.

** Eyesight is 6x greater than a human's. (And they can definitely give you the ol' evil eye.)


RANGE

** Found in all states except Hawaii. (Even Florida?)

** Illinois has the largest winter population of eagles other than Alaska.

**Less than 125 active nests in Illinois. (We now have one here in the Chain of Lakes that is occupied year round.)

** Is still on the Federal threatened species list. (But definitely not as threatened as in the 60s-80s.)

Go See 'Em. Don't Cost Nuthin'. --RoadDog