The Eagle Has Hatched

A bald eagle has hatched in Washington, the first time in a half-century that the national symbol is known to have nested in the nation's capital.

After receiving a tip from a resident who spotted a pair of eagles flying around with branches and twigs in their beaks, federal wildlife officials spotted them building the nest in January on National Park Service land, The Washington Post reported Thursday.

In March, the female eagle was sitting on the nest, and in April a chick hatched. It has been flying on its own since late June. Now, the eaglet and its parents still spend time near the nest, but not in it.
Wildlife officials are thrilled because eagles have a reputation for being fussy about where they live. Until recently, scientists had thought eagles would not nest in developed areas.

The eaglet, which will not develop the species' distinctive white head feathers for several years, is the first bald eagle known to be hatched in the city since the late 1940s, according to the National Park Service.

According to the Fish & Wildlife Service, the bald eagle became the national symbol in 1782, when at least 100,000 of the birds inhabited every state except Hawaii.

Congress began trying to protect the bird with the Bald Eagle Protection Act of 1940.

But by 1963, only 417 nesting pairs remained in the lower 48 states, a decrease blamed on loss of habitat and widespread use of the pesticide DDT, which weakened eagle eggs so that they were crushed in the nest. In 1967, the Department of Interior listed the bird as an endangered species.

The bird's numbers began rising after DDT was banned in 1972.

That was followed by the passage of a strengthened Endangered Species Act of 1973, which prohibited anyone from hunting or trapping the eagle and restricted federally funded projects in areas deemed to be critical habitats for the birds.

Today, the Fish & Wildlife Service counts 5,748 nesting pairs of bald eagles.

Citing that population growth, the Clinton administration is close to removing the bald eagle from the endangered species list. President Clinton proposed the removal in July 1999.

In the Federal Register that month, the Fish & Wildlife Service wrote that it proposed removing the species because "the available data indicate that this species has recovered. The recovery is due in part to habitat protection and management actions initiated under the Endangered Species Act."

There are currently 1053 animals and 738 plants on the endangered species list. Endangered species are those that are threatened with extinction, while a second category, threatened species, includes animals that could become endangered soon.

The bald eagle, or Haliaeetus leucocephalus is a brown ird with a white head and tail, weighing between seven and 14 pounds with wingspans from six-and-a-half to eight feet. The birds live up to 30 years, and build massive nests—some weigh up to 4,000 pounds—atop tall trees. They once ranged throughout North America.