Bald Eagle: a symbol of our nation and conservation success
- Kevin Kilbane
- 3 days ago
- 5 min read
As America prepares for its 250th birthday on July 4, you will see a lot of signs and images displaying one of the iconic symbols of our country — the bald eagle.
Even in a normal year, the majestic bird appears on some U.S. money and on the seals and logos of a number of federal government offices and agencies.
However, it wasn’t that long ago that bald eagles were in trouble in the wild. Collaboration on environmental regulations and restoration programs have brought them back, both in Indiana and around the nation. Locally, visitors frequently now see them soaring over Eagle Marsh or other Little River Wetlands Project nature preserves.
“They are doing very well as a population (in Indiana),” said Allisyn Gillet, state ornithologist with the Indiana Department of Natural Resources’ (DNR) Division of Fish and Wildlife.
THE HISTORY
Leaders of our young nation chose the bald eagle as the national bird in 1782, a 2019 Library of Congress blog article said. The bald eagle image used in a government seal conveyed pride and strength.
However, shootings, habitat loss and use of the pesticide DDT nearly wiped out the bald eagle population in the wild. DDT made the shells of eagle eggs thin and easily broken during nesting. The eagle birth rate plummeted. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency banned nearly all use of DDT as of 1973.
Efforts to return bald eagles to Indiana skies began in 1985 through the DNR’s Indiana Nongame & Endangered Wildlife Program, the department’s website said. From 1985 through 1989, the state brought in 73 eaglets, ages 7 to 8 weeks old, from Wisconsin and Alaska and placed them in a nesting tower at Lake Monroe, southeast of Bloomington. The eaglets fledged about four weeks later and went off on their own.
At ages 4 to 5 years old, they returned to Indiana to nest, typically within 50 to 100 miles of where they fledged, the DNR website said. In 1991, two nesting pairs produced a combined total of three eaglets, the first successful nesting in the state since 1897. The number of nesting pairs and resulting eaglets continued climbing through the years, the DNR website said. Due to that success, state officials in 2008 removed the bald eagle from the Indiana Endangered Species List and downgraded it to a Species of Special Concern. By 2020, bald eagles had created more than 350 nesting territories in the state, so Indiana removed them as a Species of Special Concern.
THE PRESENT
This year, the DNR has received reports of 438 nesting pairs of bald eagles in the state and 634 nests, Gillet said. Some eagle pairs build a back-up nest in case they don’t want to use their first nest, she explained.
The nesting numbers likely are an undercount, Gillet noted, because DNR staff no longer go out to count bald eagle nests. The DNR relies on the public to report sightings of eagle nests and eaglets. The reports must be accompanied by a photo so DNR staff can confirm the birds are eagles, she added.
“There’s definitely some areas in the state that are neglected and probably have eagles, and we just don’t count them because we don’t have people reporting them,” she said.
As of the end of April, people also had reported seeing 163 eaglets in nests statewide, Gillet said. That figure likely also is low, she added, because eagle parents, which typically have two or three chicks each nesting season, still had time to lay eggs this spring. People often don’t check back on nests frequently enough to keep up with eaglet births and fledging, she said.
In 2025, for example, people reported seeing 430 eagle chicks in nests and confirmed 182 of them fledged, Gillet said. The difference from 430 to 182 could result because people didn’t go back to nests often enough to see chicks fledge, she noted.
As Indiana’s eagle population grows, Gillet said, the birds have spread into areas they didn’t settle in previously. While they prefer to nest along large rivers and reservoirs and feed on fish, Gillet said some bald eagles have settled in a lone large tree or a small woodlot in the middle of wide swath of farm fields. Others have built nests in large trees in suburban areas around cities.
So far, Gillet said, Indiana’s bald eagles also have avoided the devastating effects of the avian flu outbreak. She believes that could be because much of Indiana’s bald eagle population stays here year-round.
Avian flu has been hardest on eagles in northern states, such as Wisconsin, where many birds migrate south for the winter, Gillet said.
“I’ve gotten the impression that migratory individuals tend to be disproportionately affected by avian flu because they are getting into large groups and migrating together and eating together, just like a big banquet or something like that,” she explained. “They are sharing a lot of food and diseases with each other.
“If you have residents that are on territory all year-round, they are not moving around as much,” she continued. “They are not interacting with individuals as much and others as much. They are not spreading disease as much.”
Migrating eagles also tend to eat more waterfowl, which are frequent carriers of avian flu, she said.
THE FUTURE
Gillet isn’t surprised by bald eagles’ resurgence in Indiana.
“A lot of people don’t realize eagles are scavengers,” she said. “That makes them really resilient. They can eat deer on the side of the road. There are plenty of deer that get hit by cars. That makes them (eagles) really resilient to any loss of one type of food that they need or, rather, that they prefer.”
The eagles settling in trees or woodlots in large farm fields, for example, feed mainly on roadkill and small mammals, she said.
Birds with narrow preferences for food or habitat have more difficulty adapting to change.
“I like to think of eagles as this is a champion for wildlife and wildlife conservation,” Gillet said. “They are excellent examples of what people can do to cause positive change. We can actually work together to mitigate a threat, which was DDT.”
That effort, the Clean Water Act, Clean Air Act and other initiatives collectively created a good environmental baseline that allowed the bald eagle to be reintroduced in Indiana in the 1980s and to become a thriving species in our time, she observed.
“I think eagles are a great way to just tell that story,” she said. “… We can make it happen. We just have to work together.”
YOU CAN HELP
• Donations to the DNR’s Indiana Nongame Wildlife Fund support the state’s work to restore and conserve native wildlife that are endangered or threatened in the wild. The work includes species research, surveys and restoration.
The state also can use donations to the fund to seek matching grants from the federal government, which nearly doubles the impact of a gift, said Allisyn Gillet, state ornithologist for the DNR’s Division of Fish and Wildlife.
For more on how to donate, go to: www.in.gov/dnr/fish-and-wildlife/nongame-and-endangered-wildlife/donate-to-the-indiana-nongame-wildlife-fund
You also can donate on your Indiana state tax form.
• Report sightings of bald eagle nests to dfw@dnr.IN.gov. Include a photo or two of the nest and birds so DNR staff can confirm they are bald eagles. However, stay at least a football field away from the nest.
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