ENDANGERED SPECIES ACT PROFILE

PROTECTION STATUS: Formerly endangered; delisted 2007

YEAR PLACED ON LIST: 1967

CRITICAL HABITAT: None

RECOVERY PLAN: Chesapeake Bay (1982), Southwest (1982), northern states (1983), southeastern states (1984), Pacific states (1986), southeastern states revision (1989), Chesapeake Bay revised (1990)

RANGE: Throughout North America, south to northern Mexico

THREATS: Hunting, habitat loss, contamination from DDT application and lead shot, and disturbance

POPULATION TREND: A quarter- to a half-million birds inhabited the North American continent at the time of European arrival. Reduced to a mere 416 pairs in the lower 48 states by 1963, the species was entirely extirpated from many states. With legal protection, numbers rebounded to an estimated 5,748 pairs by the time the eagle's delisting was first proposed in 1999. By 2007, breeding pairs had climbed to about 11,040.

Photo © Robin Silver