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Bald Eagle

Status Uncommon resident. Breeds. Most of our Bald Eagles are found on Cape Breton Island during summer. In 1984, of 238 nest sites in a nearly complete survey, 136 were occupied by eagles; of these, 195 (108 occupied) were on Cape Breton Island (Austin Smith and Dickie 1985). During the winter, they are more widespread, especially in coastal areas, and some leave the province. More adults than immature birds appear to stay in Cape Breton Island, especially around the shores of Bras d'Or Lake. On the mainland, there are winter concentrations in Kings County (where up to 66 have been counted), along the Shubenacadie River, Hants County (up to 20), and the Tusket River, Yarmouth County (up to 14).

Description Length: 78-110 cm. Adults: Dark brown, nearly black, with white head and tail; bill and tarsus yellow, the tarsus bare for half its length. Immatures: Dark brown, usually showing some whitish gray in their wing linings and breast; bill blackish.

Breeding Nest: Composed of large sticks with lining of coarse, decayed vegetable debris; usually in very large trees at heights of 10-25 m and often visible against the skyline for long distances. The actual nest is relatively small and cup-shaped with a wide verandah-like platform of coarse sticks extending out around it. Eggs: 2, rarely 3; dull white, often badly nest-stained. Laying begins about mid-April. Of 11 nests visited during the period from about 1920 to 1945, five were in pine trees, and six in old, wind-wracked, gnarled beeches. Eight of them held two eggs, two held three, and one was not reached. The earliest date for eggs is 7 April 1940 at Narrows Lake, Halifax County. The young are cared for many weeks after hatching. A nest at Black River Lake, Kings County, was visited on 22 August 1928, when one of the eaglets made its initial flight. If not unduly disturbed, the pair will return year after year to the same nest, adding new material each season.

Range Breeds from northwestern Alaska, Mackenzie Delta, Ungava Peninsula and Newfoundland, south to the Gulf Coast.

Remarks Although the Bald Eagle is a powerful bird, I have never seen one attack live prey. Two instances of such behaviour, however, have come to my attention. Both victims were gulls, one a Herring Gull and the other a Greater Black-backed Gull, both adults. The first was attacked and killed at Black River Lake when it passed too close to a nest containing half-grown eagles (E. Mullen). The other incident was related by Charles R.K. Allen, who watched the kill at Bedford Basin, Halifax County, on 15 February 1968.

Formerly a target for every gun within range of which it chanced to come, the eagle was persecuted on all sides by the public, the result of prejudice handed down over many generations. I heard a back-country farmer boast of how he had destroyed an eagle's nest located far back on his property. Waiting till he knew the nest contained young, he journeyed back armed with gun and axe. He told of felling the tree, killing the little ones and wounding one of the parent birds, but the other was too wary to come within range. When asked why he had done it, he replied, "Well, I don't know eagles are bad birds aren't they?" When asked what harm they do he was unable to mention any but kept reiterating that he had always thought they were bad birds. It is pleasing to note that in more recent years, there is a strong public sentiment in favour of protecting this rare and majestic bird. It was in 1872 that the Bald Eagle was adopted as the national symbol of the United States of America but not until 1940 that the federal "Bald Eagle Act" was passed, by which full protection was afforded to the eagle. In Nova Scotia it is also illegal to kill or to injure an eagle.

During recent decades, populations of this bird decreased alarmingly throughout much of its range, evidently as a result of pesticides such as DDT which were ingested by the eagles from their fish diet. Fortunately, with the banning of the most damaging pesticides, the decline appears to have been stemmed. The Nova Scotia eagle population appears to have been largely unaffected by these pesticides and is now sufficiently healthy to supply small numbers of young for restocking of depleted populations elsewhere. Four eaglets were sent to New Jersey in 1983 and six to Massachusetts in 1984 (Austin-Smith and Dickie 1985).

Our breeding birds are of the subspecies Haliaeetus leucocephalus alascanus. Haliaeetus leucocephalus leucocephalus (the southern form) occurs here as a non breeding wanderer, six birds having been collected since 1942. Four were taken in Halifax County, and the other two in Yarmouth County. The origin and identity of these birds were determined through bird-banding, all having been tagged in Florida as nestlings. These six birds were all immature, none having carried its leg band for a longer period than one year and 129 days. This fact suggests that young eagles of this race are more prone to wander than adults.