Band Confirms Dead Eagle As 1 Of Alaska's Oldest

ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) - A Kodiak Island bald eagle survived 25 years of Alaska hazards but met an unfortunate fate last month on the crossbar of a utility pole: electrocution.

A band attached to its leg showed the bird to be the second-oldest bald eagle documented in Alaska and one of the oldest in the country.

The death, first reported by the Kodiak Daily Mirror, was of high interest to raptor biologists, who have no other way besides recovered bands to confirm the age of mature wild eagles.

The oldest eagle in the country was a 32-year-old bird from Maine. Alaska's oldest documented eagle was a 28-year-old from the Chilkat Valley outside Haines.