 |
 |
||
 |
|||
| Home | |||
|
|
||
|
|||
| Home | |||
Welcome to the VaEagles website. This site is focused on the bald eagle population that breeds in Virginia. The Center for Conservation Biology (CCB) has been the lead conservation organization working toward restoration and management of the bald eagle in Virginia. Working with a host of partners, CCB biologists have conducted dozens of research projects designed to answer questions that are vital to the long-term maintenance of eagles and their habitat within the Chesapeake Bay region. Since the late 1970s, Virginia's breeding population has made a dramatic recovery from less than 30 to more than 600 breeding pairs. We hope that providing information to the public will help to raise awareness about and concern for this vulnerable population.
Breeding eagles have been surveyed annually in the lower Chesapeake Bay since 1956. The 2009 survey represents the 54th consecutive survey. Each year CCB biologists fly a nest survey in February and March to map eagle nests and to determine their activity status. This survey is followed in late April and May by a productivity survey where chicks are counted in each nest. The survey covers all tributaries of the lower Chesapeake, as well as, other prominent bodies of water and requires more than 100 hours of flight time in a high-wing Cessna. Biologists survey all known nest structures to determine their activity status and search for newly established nests. During the 2009 breeding season, CCB surveyed more than 900 nest structures and documented more than 610 breeding pairs that produced more than 820 chicks.
Read more about the annual bald eagle survey >>
Bald eagles in Virginia have experienced a dramatic recovery from a low of 30 breeding pairs in the early 1970s to more than 610 pairs in 2009. Recovery within the state includes (1) an increase in the number of breeding territories, (2) an increase in reproductive rate, and (3) an expansion in geographic distribution. The Virginia population has now exceeded the recovery goal for the entire Chesapeake Bay. The population has also exceeded the target reproductive rate in every year except one since 1984. However, habitat goals outlined in the Chesapeake Bay recovery plan have not been met and habitat continues to be threatened by human disturbance and development.
Read more about resident bald eagles in Virginia >>
The Chesapeake Bay is an area of convergence for post-nesting and subadult bald eagles from breeding populations in the Southeast and Northeast. In late spring and early summer, eagles migrate north from Florida and other southeastern states to spend the summer months in the Bay. In the late fall, eagles migrate south from New England populations to spend the winter months on the tributaries of the Bay. The convergence of three geographically distinct populations (northeast, southeast, and Chesapeake Bay) suggests that the Bay plays a particularly important role in the recovery of bald eagles in eastern North America.
Read more about migrant bald eagles in Virginia >>
The Center for Conservation Biology is grateful to the many public and private organizations and individuals that have contributed to the conservation of bald eagles in Virginia.
For the first time in the history of the annual bald eagle survey, the location of known nests in Virginia are being made available online to the public. The results of the 2009 survey are being made available in the hope that the public will become more actively involved in the conservation of this species throughout Virginia. Nests presented here are those that have been documented by CCB to be active in 2009 or that continue to be protected under state or federal guidelines. Note that, under the law, undocumented nests receive the same level of protection as those presented here. Enter the VaEagles Nest Locator >> |
Browse more photos from CCB's bald eagle research >>
If you cannot see images above,
The Center for Conservation Biology is currently conducting one of the largest eagle tracking projects in the world. The study is designed to record eagle movements throughout the Chesapeake Bay and beyond in an effort to understand how eagles use the landscape and how they relate to humans. Over the past 2 years, CCB has deployed transmitters on 67 eagles including 3 golden eagles. Units have been deployed on birds from a number of age classes including nearly 20 nestlings. To date, transmitters have recorded more than 300,000 GPS locations and are beginning to reveal patterns of movement within the Bay, as well as, in and out of the Bay. In the long term, information gained from these birds will help us to better manage the species throughout eastern North America.
Visit EagleTrak site & blog >>
See maps of eagles tracked by CCB >>
Report bald eagle band sightings >>
During the breeding seasons of 2002 through 2004, Catherine Markham (former graduate student working with Bryan Watts), CCB staff, and many volunteers investigated the influence of salinity on eagle diet and chick growth rates. This study involved the installation of video monitoring systems on 18 eagle nests in the lower Chesapeake Bay and the recording of over 4,000 hours of video. This was the most definitive study of eagle diet and brood provisioning ever conducted in the Chesapeake Bay and has lead to a better understanding of breeding distribution.