What Do Eagles Do in the Winter? During winter, you can find bald eagles as far south as the Mexican coast, but most will stay within the United States and establish residence wherever they can find open water. During the warm summer months, bald eagles are fierce hunters. But come winter, they are scavengers who take what they can get, like roadkill or animals trapped in ice. While they can handle plunging temperatures, bald eagles, like most birds, reduce their activity and find a place to shelter during periods of extreme cold Bald eagles don’t like to stay on their wintering grounds too long and will return to their regular breeding habitats as soon as they once again have a reliable food source. Spring migration takes place anywhere between January and March. Much of the bald eagle population returns to Canada, while those around the coastline stay where they are. Their nesting habitats reside away from human habitations, typically in a forested area near open water. When Do...
What is a bald eagle? The bald eagle is a large, powerful bird that has been the national symbol of the United States since 1782, when it was first placed with outspread wings on the country’s Great Seal as a sign of strength. Bald eagles don’t actually have bare heads. Their name is derived from the old English word “Balde,” which means white—a nod to the snowy-white feathers that cover their heads and tails. Most of these majestic, brown-bodied creatures live in Alaska and Canada, but they also inhabit Mexico and every U.S. state except for Hawaii. Despite their national fame, bald eagles were almost wiped out in the U.S. in the mid-1900s due to decades of sport hunting and habitat destruction. DDT, a pesticide that became popular after World War II, also wreaked havoc on bald eagles that ate contaminated fish, weakening their eggshells so much they’d crack during incubation. In 1972, the U.S. banned DDT use and began intensive population management strategies that led to eag...