Animal
Bald eagle
Haliaeetus leucocephalus
The U.S. national bird and one of the great DDT-recovery stories — bald eagles were nearly extinct in the contiguous 48 states by the 1960s and have since rebounded to the point where they nest in NYC. Bald eagles are now regularly observed at Staten Island's South Shore — Mount Loretto, Conference House Park, and Great Kills — and have nested on the borough in the 2020s, the first confirmed NYC bald eagle nesting in over 100 years.
Scientific
Haliaeetus leucocephalus is a large fish-eating raptor (8–14 lb, wingspan 6–7 ft). Diet primarily fish, with significant scavenging and occasional waterfowl predation. Adults reach reproductive maturity at 4–5 years; the white head and tail develop fully at maturity.
DDT bioaccumulation devastated the species in the lower 48 by the 1960s — an estimated 417 nesting pairs remained in 1963. After DDT was banned (1972) and the Endangered Species Act passed (1973), the population began a multi-decade recovery. Removed from the federal endangered list in 2007. NY State delisted 2024.
On Staten Island
Sightings have been routine on the borough’s South Shore for years; the species is now an established winter and migratory presence at [[mount-loretto-unique-area|Mount Loretto]], Great Kills, [[conference-house-park|Conference House Park]], Lemon Creek, and along the harbor edges. The 2020s saw the first confirmed bald eagle nesting in NYC in over a century — on Staten Island.
See also
Auto-generated from this entry’s typed relations: frontmatter, grouped by relation type so the editorial signal isn’t flattened.
- Substrate of: [[new-york-harbor-estuary]]
- Shares approach with: [[osprey]]
- Member of: [[animal]]
- Contained by: [[staten-island]]
Sources
- [[us-fish-and-wildlife-service|U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service]] bald eagle recovery records
- NYC Audubon and [[beacon-ny|New York]] State DEC bald eagle monitoring records
Rooted in life.
What links here, and how
Inbound connections from across the wiki, grouped by lens and by relationship. These appear automatically — every entity page declares what it links to, and that data populates here on the targets.
Scientific
substrate of
- Lake Wallenpaupack the lake's shoreline supports one of PA's strongest breeding bald-eagle populations after the 1980s reintroduction
shares approach with
- Snowy egret both are major American conservation-recovery stories — snowy egret from late-19th-century plume hunting, bald eagle from mid-20th-century DDT
Practical
substrate of
- Delaware Highlands Conservancy Eagle Watch program and landowner stewardship for the Upper Delaware bald-eagle concentration
3 inbound links · 4 outbound