Georgia’s bald eagle population continues to thrive.
Every year, experts from the Georgia Department of Natural Resources use helicopters to count the number of bald eagle nests in parts of the state, with follow-up flights to see how the nests fared. For the most recent survey, DNR officials looked at coastal Georgia, as well as much of north Georgia and reservoirs between Atlanta and Macon.
What they found was heartening – a growing nest success rate and more young eaglets being fledged. Survey leader Bob Sargent said this year’s results surpassed last year’s already-healthy numbers.
“The findings were even better than last year’s good results,” Sargent said. “That’s most encouraging when you consider the beating that nesting coastal eagles took in 2022 because of an outbreak of highly pathogenic avian influenza.”
Bald eagles weren’t always this robust in Georgia or the US as a whole, however. During the 1970s, for example, there were no known successful nests in the entire state. New environmental regulations, like a ban on the pesticide DDT, and wildlife release programs drove a resurgence of bald eagle populations in many parts of the country.
