I am the eagle, I live in high country
In rocky cathedrals that reach to the sky
I am the hawk and there's blood on my feathers
But time is still turning they soon will be dry
And all those who see me and all who believe in me
Share in the freedom I feel when I fly
Come dance with the west wind and touch on the mountain tops
Sail o'er the canyons and up to the stars
And reach for the heavens and hope for the future
And all that we "can" be, not what we are
On July 12, 1995, the bald eagle was reclassified from endangered to threatened in the lower 48 states. It is the first and only Montana threatened or endangered species to be downlisted since the 1973 Endangered Species Act became law. Bald eagle numbers, estimated at a quarter of a million in the lower 48 states before 1800, declined steadily throughout the late 1800s and early 1900s. Raptors at this time were regarded as vermin and shot on sight. The Bald Eagle Protection Act of 1940 increased public awareness and made indiscriminate shooting, poisoning, collecting, and trading of bald eagles illegal, stemming the decline for a time. Yet, the advent of DDT and related pesticides during World War II and their widespread post-war use soon caused eagle reproduction to plummet. In 1963, a National Audubon Society survey reported only 417 active nests in the lower 48 states.
In 1978, bald eagles throughout the lower 48 states were classified as endangered,except in Michigan, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Washington, and Oregon, where they were designated threatened. Between 1984 and 1994, the number of known breeding pairs in the Pacific States Bald Eagle Recovery Region (Washington, Oregon, California, Nevada, Idaho, Wyoming, and Montana) increased from 479 pairs to 1,192 pairs. One-fourth of all the breeding bald eagles in the lower 48 states come from this region.
A Bald Eagle is a bird of prey or raptor meaning that they fly off with their prey and eat it in another location. It is the claws or talons of the eagle that do the killing. Their talons are sharp enough to pierce metal. The impact of these claws is like that of a bullet.
The bald eagle is found in a variety of habitats from rugged forests to freshwater lakes and rivers. It can even be seen in the hot deserts of the Baja peninsula in northern Mexico. I have two eagles that reside in my neighborhood and they are quite the attraction. High in the tree tops is where this bird likes to sit, giving it a perfect lookout for prey. Although their main food source is fish, inland-nesting eagles can inhabitat areas far from water. This gives way to a wider range of prey...mammals and reptiles.
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