Bald Eagle

Bald eagles are found across North Carolina but because its main source of food is fish, they are typically found near large bodies of water. These birds also need a tall, living tree for its huge nest and for perching.

North Carolina Wildlife Profiles – Bald Eagle (N.C. Wildlife Resources Commission)
The bald eagle prefers habitat near lakes, large rivers and shorelines of sounds and bays. The bird requires tall, isolated trees for perching and nesting.

Bald Eagle Distribution and Abundance in North Carolina (Carolina Bird Club)
Nest sites are typically in large living pines or cypresses, especially close to water and where the birds have a commanding view of their surroundings.

Audubon Guide to North American Birds – Bald Eagle
Audubon has identified the Bald Eagle as 1 of 32 priority-bird species within the Atlantic Flyway.  A priority species is one that is particularly threatened in terms of the species’ long-term survival.

All About Birds: Bald Eagle (Cornell Lab of Ornithology)
Learn general information about the bald eagle and four keys to identification.

Bald and Golden Eagle Information (U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service)
The Bald Eagle is an Endangered Species Act success story. Forty years ago it was in danger of extinction throughout most of its range. Habitat destruction and degradation, illegal shooting, and the contamination of its food source decimated the eagle population.

Bald Eagle Identification (Carolina Bird Club)
The term “eagle” loosely refers to a diverse group of large, diurnal raptors within three subfamilies, many genera and depending on your nomenclature, as many as 60 species. In North America north of Mexico, four species of two genera are known.

Eagles of Jordan Lake (Our State Magazine)
Jordan Lake is the site of the largest concentration of bald eagles on the East Coast. The birds are drawn here because Jordan Lake’s more than 46,000 acres of water and surrounding woods provide plenty of food and room for them to nest high up in the pines, far away from human visitors.

Management of Bald Eagle Nests, Concentration Areas, and Communal Roosts in Virginia:  A Guide for Landowners (Virginia Department of Game and Inland Fisheries)
Since first listed as a federally endangered species in 1967, cooperative actions to restore and protect eagles and their essential habitats by government agencies, university researchers, non-government conservation agencies and, most significantly, by private and public landowners, have fostered dramatic recovery of our nation’s wildlife icon.