To Good Health

The Audubon Center for Birds of Prey in Maitland, Florida, treats both Golden and Bald eagles for everything from broken bones to gunshot wounds. In honor of their 500th rehabilitated eagle, coming sometime in 2015, here are some facts and figures on North America’s only two eagle species.

1782  The year Congress approved the Bald Eagle as the national symbol. 

1784  The year Benjamin Franklin called the Bald Eagle a “bird of bad moral character . . . a rank coward.”

9  Number of countries that claim the Golden Eagle as their national bird: Austria, Egypt, Germany, Ghana, Iraq, Kazakhstan, Mexico, Romania, and Yemen.

00  Jersey number for Swoop, the Philadelphia Eagles’ mascot. The Bald Eagle’s diet consists of Falcons, cheesesteaks, and soft pretzels.

4,000  The approximate weight, in pounds, of the largest recorded Bald Eagle nest. The nest was also 20 feet high and 9 feet wide.

62  Mile-per-hour winds endured by Bald Eagles on Chesapeake Bay during Hurricane Gloria in 1985.

$500,000  Maximum fine for poaching a Bald Eagle.

1960s  When DDT decimated the Bald Eagles of California’s Channel Islands; Golden Eagles eventually took over the vacant territory.

16,571  Number of genes in the Golden Eagle’s genome, the first avian genome to be fully sequenced. 

400  In nanometers, the shortest wavelength a Golden Eagle can see, which means that UV paint is not an effective deterrent on wind turbines.

67  Number of Golden and Bald Eagles reported killed by wind turbines between 2008 and 2013.

$24,468,315  Economic losses, as estimated by the FAA, due to 174 aircraft strikes with Bald Eagles.

487  Estimated number of Bald Eagle nesting pairs left in the United States in the 1960s, when the species was listed as endangered.

10,000  Estimated number of Bald Eagle nesting pairs when the bird was delisted some 40 years later, in 2007.