By: Sally Siko- Admin Birdwatching NC

Discovering a Bald Eagle nest is an exciting thing! My participation within the ARMY’s Corps of Engineers Bald Eagle Nest Monitoring program presents a rare opportunity to document the life cycle of these majestic birds in the wild. As a wildlife photographer, this is a dream come true! But with this experience, comes a deep sense of responsibility to ensure that my actions do not alter the birds behavior by disturbing them on the nest.

The FWS has released a Bald Eagle Technical Assistance bulletin which lays out the regulatory guidelines for the protection of nesting eagles. I have highlighted some of the finer points of the document below as it applies to my activities conducted within the scope of the ARMY Corps of Engineers Bald Eagle Nest Monitoring Program .

“Oct 1 – May 15 are the general nesting season dates used for guidance in the south east (including North Carolina). All technical assistance guidance applies to nesting eagles including adults, eggs or young, whenever they are present for breeding purposes.”

“Non-motorized recreation including hiking, camping, fishing, hunting, canoeing”

“If you repeatedly walk, bike, canoe, camp, fish, or hunt (e.g. commercial operations) near an eagle nest during the breeding season and your activity will be visible or can be heard from the nest stay at least 330 feet (100 meters) from the nest, unless the eagles have demonstrated tolerance for similar activities.

“None of these activities near a nest would disturb the eagles if the activity cannot be seen or heard from the nest.”

Obviously these regulations restrict my ability to gather behavioral data and photograph the eagles up close which is just fine because I use a zoom lens combined with the mighty Canon 5DS camera. This equipment allows me to capture photographs from a great distance away without disturbing the Eagles on the nest.

The picture below shows what it looks like form my vantage point photographing the nest that I discovered earlier this month at Jordan Lake Park.

But why is it really so important for us to keep our distances from Bald eagle nests? What does the law say?

Here is an explanation from the FWS about the Eagle Act and the Migratory Bird Treaty Act which protect these incredible birds.

“The bald eagle (Haliaeetus leucocephalus) is protected by the Bald and Golden Eagle Protection Act (Eagle Act) and the Migratory Bird Treaty Act (MBTA). The MBTA and the Eagle Act protect bald eagles from a variety of harmful actions and impacts. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (Service) developed these National Bald Eagle Management Guidelines to advise landowners, land managers, and others who share public and private lands with bald eagles when and under what circumstances the protective provisions of the Eagle Act may apply to their activities.

A variety of human activities can potentially interfere with bald eagles, affecting their ability to forage, nest, roost, breed, or raise young. The Guidelines are intended to help people minimize such impacts to bald eagles, particularly where they may constitute “disturbance,” which is prohibited by the Eagle Act. The Guidelines are intended to: (1) Publicize the provisions of the Eagle Act that continue to protect bald eagles, in order to reduce the possibility that people will violate the law, (2) Advise landowners, land managers and the general public of the potential for various human activities to disturb bald eagles, and (3) Encourage additional nonbinding land management practices that benefit bald eagles

If agitated by human activities, bald eagles may inadequately construct or repair their nest, may expend energy defending the nest rather than tending to their young, or may abandon the nest altogether.

Activities that cause prolonged absences of adults from their nests can jeopardize eggs or young. Depending on weather conditions, eggs may overheat or cool too much and fail to hatch. Unattended eggs and nestlings are subject to predation. Young nestlings are particularly vulnerable because they rely on their parents to provide warmth or shade, without which they may die as a result of hypothermia or heat stress.

If food delivery schedules are interrupted, the young may not develop healthy plumage, which can affect their survival. In addition, adults startled while incubating or brooding young may damage eggs or injure their young as they abruptly leave the nest.

Older nestlings no longer require constant attention from the adults, but they may be startled by loud or intrusive human activities and prematurely jump from the nest before they are able to fly or care for themselves. Once fledged, juveniles range up to ¼ mile from the nest site, often to a site with minimal human activity. During this period, until about six weeks after departure from the nest, the juveniles still depend on the adults to feed them.

The impact of human activity on foraging and roosting bald eagles disruption, destruction, or obstruction of roosting and foraging areas can also negatively affect bald eagles. Disruptive activities in or near eagle foraging areas can interfere with feeding, reducing chances of survival. Interference with feeding can also result in reduced productivity (number of young successfully fledged).

Migrating and wintering bald eagles often congregate at specific sites for purposes of feeding and sheltering. Bald eagles rely on established roost sites because of their proximity to sufficient food sources. Roost sites are usually in mature trees where the eagles are somewhat sheltered from the wind and weather. Human activities near or within communal roost sites may prevent eagles from feeding or taking shelter, especially if there are not other undisturbed and productive feeding and roosting sites available.

Activities that permanently alter communal roost sites and important foraging areas can altogether eliminate the elements that are essential for feeding and sheltering eagles. Where a human activity agitates or bothers roosting or foraging bald eagles to the degree that causes injury or substantially interferes with breeding, feeding, or sheltering behavior and causes, or is likely to cause, a loss of productivity or nest abandonment, the conduct of the activity constitutes a violation of the Eagle Act’s prohibition against disturbing eagles.”

I think that it is important that we conduct ourselves responsibly when in the field in any capacity. Understanding the risks humans pose to altering the nesting behavior of Bald Eagles and adjusting our own behavior just seems like common sense 🙂

• Additional guidelines exist for developers and homeowners in regards to building/ property distances to nest sites. This important information may be found at https://www.fws.gov/southeast/our-services/eagle-technical-assistance/

Happy Birding!