Bald eagles
Laws protect them, but what about nest safety?
Benjamin Franklin seemed to support the turkey to be the national bird, over the eagle.
He famously wrote a letter to his daughter in 1784 in which he expressed his preference for the wild turkey over the bald eagle as a symbol for the United States. In the letter, he wrote:
"For my own part I wish the Bald Eagle had not been chosen the Representative of our Country. He is a Bird of bad moral Character. He does not get his Living honestly. You may have seen him perched on some dead Tree near the River, where, too lazy to fish for himself, he watches the Labour of the Fishing Hawk; and when that diligent Bird has at length taken a Fish, and is bearing it to his Nest for the Support of his Mate and young Ones, the Bald Eagle pursues him and takes it from him."
He went on to describe the wild turkey as a much more respectable bird, saying:
"The Turkey is in Comparison a much more respectable Bird, and withal a true original Native of America... He is besides, though a little vain and silly, a Bird of Courage, and would not hesitate to attack a Grenadier of the British Guards who should presume to invade his Farm Yard with a red Coat on."
But the letter was never sent to his daughter and the entire letter was published posthumously. It was considered to be a satire on insider political commentary and not really a serious view of the eagle, but written in jest.1
On June 20, 1782, the Second Continental Congress officially designated the eagle as the national bird when they created the American seal.2
Native American Nations including Native Alaskans, consider the eagle to be sacred. They soar higher than any other bird, traveling the closest to the Creator to take prayers and messages from earthly humans. Special permitting and eagle parts depositories have been legislated to provide some gesture toward recognizing the cultural significance of the Bald Eagle. Yes controversies still rage over wearing eagle feathers at high school and graduation ceremonies.
In 1940, Congress passed the The Bald and Golden Eagle Protection Act3 that prohibits anyone from “taking” bald or golden eagle parts, feathers, nests or eggs. A permit can be issued for taking eagles by members of federally recognized tribes for ceremonial hunting and killing.4 In 1962, it was amended in to include Golden Eagles.
The Endangered Species Act was passed in 1973, and the bald eagle was listed as an endangered species in 1978. The bald eagle was delisted from the Endangered Species Act in 2007 after its population recovered from a low of just 417 nesting pairs in the 1960s to over 10,000 nesting pairs.
Even though it is delisted under the ESA, the bald eagle is protected by the Migratory Bird Treaty Act, a 1916 domestic law enacted to carry out the obligations of that international treaty. Due to a fashion trend of taking migratory birds for their feathers to supply the fashion women’s hat industry, the need to protect these birds became apparent. Because of its unique legal status of imposing an international treaty on states, and a treaty that is unconstitutional is not valid. So Missouri challenged the law as a 10th Amendment infringement, in 1920 in Missouri v. Holland. The court opined that this law was firmly within Congress's Article II, § 2 power to make treaties, so the 10th Amendment could not be read alone but read in the context of this federal power. Further finding this a valid act the Supremacy Clause makes the law supreme over state laws to the contrary. So the Migratory Bird Treaty Act was found to be constitutional by the U.S. Supreme Court.
In Dec 2004, the U.S. Congress followed up by recognizing that designation and officially minting a commemorative coin with the ‘‘American Bald Eagle Recovery and National Emblem Commemorative Coin Act’’ 5
In August 2021, the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service announced it would not be removing the bald eagle from the list of protected species under the Endangered Species Act. This was based on a five-year status review of the bald eagle population, conducted by the USFWS, and determined that the species still warrants protection due to ongoing threats such as habitat loss, illegal shooting, and collisions with power lines.
Again, the Migratory Bird Treaty Act (MBTA) was challenged. In 2015, the US Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit in United States v. Citgo Petroleum Corp., 801 F.3d 477 (5th Cir. 2015), held that “incidental” migratory bird take does not trigger liability under the MBTA. The court held that the MBTA only applied to hunting and poaching activities, and that incidental take (i.e., unintentional killing or injuring) of migratory birds caused by industrial activities, such as oil and gas operations, were “incidental” and not intentional acts.6
The U.S. Department of Justice appealed the decision, and in August 2018, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit reversed the lower court's decision. The Fifth Circuit held that the MBTA applied to incidental take of migratory birds caused by industrial activities, and that the MBTA was a valid exercise of Congress's power to regulate interstate commerce.
In 2019, June 20 officially became American Eagle Day.7
In 2020, the Trump administration issued a legal opinion that the MBTA only applied to intentional killing or injuring of migratory birds, and that incidental take was not covered under the law. This interpretation was challenged by conservation groups and some states, and in January 2021, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service issued a statement announcing its intention to repeal the Trump administration's legal opinion and restore the MBTA's protections for incidental take of migratory birds.
With these protections, the recovery of the Bald and Golden Eagle would be practically guaranteed, one would think.
However, their own nestbuilding skill may be falling short. Live webcams pointing toward Bald Eagle nests follow the lives of Bald Eagles as they nurture eggs and hatchlings to fledglings. Then so often tragedy strikes when a nest falls to the ground or a chick falls from the nest. Are failed nests hurting the eagles’ recovery efforts, as we watch helplessly as their efforts often fall short and young eagle chicks die?
Why do their nests fail so often?
Large online audiences watch the progress of Bald Eagles nesting, hatching, nurturing and growing their chicks to independence. Repeatedly, these audiences were devastated to see a chick fall out of the nest, or a nest fall to the ground.
For example, in 2018,8and just this week,9 live webcam viewers were informed that a eagle chick had died in a fall one due to a falling nest accident.
These nests are no small clump of grass. They can weigh as much as a ton, and are reused year after year. To build these nests, eagles work as teams to bring large sticks in their talons, instead of tiny sticks in their beaks like most other nest-building birds. Their structural integrity suffers near the end of their useful life as a nest.
Common reasons for bald eagle nest failures are tree or nest structure failure, which can be caused by a variety of factors including high winds, ice accumulation, and decay of the nesting substrate. While bald eagles typically select large trees with sturdy limbs and a broad canopy to build their nests, eventually these trees can become diseased or die, causing the structure to be unstable. Structural failure due to environmental factors is a natural occurence.
Because bald eagles use their nests from year to year, and accumulate nesting material, the accumulation of nesting material over time can lead to increased weight and stress on the nest structure. lures.
Nest failure has also been attributed to the recent rise documented in 2023 of a highly pathogenic H5N1 influenza infected Bald Eagles, probably from ingesting infected waterfowl.10
The Major Threats
The biggest threat to eagles is still anthropogenic, that is, the human produced threats.11 The biggest threats are exposure to environmental contaminants (e.g., lead and anticoagulant rodenticides), trauma from vehicular, wind turbine, or powerline strikes, and direct killing.12 The green benefits of wind energy cannot be considered without also considering the unintended consequences of killing Bald Eagles.13 In Michigan, a study in 2022 found that vehicular accidents was the leading cause of eagle deaths.14
So it appears the risk of nest failure has been magnified by social media. I am admittedly grateful for live nest cams and all the attention it brings to eagles and an appreciation for their grandeur. However, nestbuilding skill is still impressive, and one of the hazards of living in an old house is that it will fall down around you one day. Even though the live web cam views magnify the importance of nest structural integrity in the life or death cycle of raising chicks to fledglings, we cannot lose sight of the real threats and dangers to the Bald Eagle and guard against them proportionately.
https://www.livescience.com/benjamin-franklin-turkey-national-bird
https://www.archives.gov/milestone-documents/original-design-of-the-great-seal-of-the-united-states
16 U.S.C. 668-668d at https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/USCODE-2010-title16/pdf/USCODE-2010-title16-chap5A-subchapII.pdf
16 USC 668-668d at https://www.ecfr.gov/current/title-50/chapter-I/subchapter-B/part-22#se50.9.22_122
https://www.congress.gov/108/plaws/publ486/PLAW-108publ486.pdf
https://www.steptoe.com/en/news-publications/fifth-circuit-limits-liability-for-incidental-take-under-the-migratory-bird-treaty-act.html
https://www.congress.gov/bill/116th-congress/senate-resolution/257
https://www.pennlive.com/wildaboutpa/2018/03/bald_eagle_pair_loses_battle_o.html
Minnesota DNR report at
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-023-27446-1#citeas
https://cwbm.ca/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/3-Vol-4-Issue-1-Scott-and-Bollinger.pdf
Nemeth, N.M., Ruder, M.G., Poulson, R.L. et al. Bald eagle mortality and nest failure due to clade 2.3.4.4 highly pathogenic H5N1 influenza a virus. Sci Rep 13, 191 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-023-27446-1
https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2123438
https://www.freep.com/story/news/local/michigan/2020/08/07/leading-killer-bald-eagles-michigan-isnt-what-you-think/5572129002/