Historically, the Bald Eagle was common along major rivers, lakes, and coastal areas throughout Virginia and the Chesapeake Bay. However, the use of pesticides like DDT on crops and the clearing of forests for farmland caused the number of Bald Eagles in the region to decline. By the late 1960s, Virginia's eagle population was at an all time low.

Concern for the declining number of eagles in Virginia and across North America led to a national effort to restore historic populations. After the nationwide ban on most persistent pesticides and the elevation of the Bald Eagle to the federal list of endangered species in the 1970s, the Virginia population has experienced a fantastic recovery. The number of breeding pairs in the state has increased from approximately 32 pairs in the 1960s to 453 pairs in 2005. That's a great come back, but will this success last? We believe the key to long-term conservation is habitat preservation - saving space for the eagles. Bald Eagles will survive in Virginia and elsewhere only if there are places where they can nest and forage. But how do conservationists decide what land is most critical to protect for eagles?

We worked on a project to help answer that question. One part of the study invovled video-taping several Bald Eagle nests. We learned a lot from these video-tapes, including more about the diet of eagles nesting in the Bay. Here, we share that part of our project with you! Read through this site to learn more about Bald Eagles, one of our research questions, and the results we found!