{"id":24235,"date":"2024-12-26T10:58:46","date_gmt":"2024-12-26T17:58:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/its-bald-eagle-season-here-are-tips-to-see-the-birds-in-colorado\/"},"modified":"2024-12-26T17:58:46","modified_gmt":"2024-12-26T17:58:46","slug":"its-bald-eagle-season-here-are-tips-to-see-the-birds-in-colorado","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/its-bald-eagle-season-here-are-tips-to-see-the-birds-in-colorado\/","title":{"rendered":"It\u2019s bald eagle season, here are tips to see the birds in Colorado"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\"A
A bald eagle eats its breakfast after snatching a fish from a pond in March 2020 in the Animas Valley. (Jerry McBride\/Durango Herald file)<\/span>du1-i-syn<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

Look up \u2013 it\u2019s bald eagle season in Colorado.<\/p>\n

Several thousand of the majestic birds have migrated here for the winter and about 300 pairs who live in the state year-round are busy fixing up their nests before romance takes flight early next year.<\/p>\n

All of them are about to get a big honor from the White House. President Joe Biden is about to sign a law making the bald eagle the national bird. Of course, that\u2019s just a formality. Eagles have been on the Great Seal of the United States since 1782 and these days you\u2019ll see them on everything from beer labels to NFL jerseys. Somehow, though, a formal distinction got overlooked.<\/p>\n

That even came as a surprise to one of Colorado\u2019s top eagle experts, avian researcher Reesa Conrey of Colorado Parks and Wildlife.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think it is a common misconception. \u2026 It\u2019s something I never knew.\u201d<\/p>\n

Here are some of Conrey\u2019s tips for seeing eagles in Colorado<\/p>\n

Where they hang out:<\/div>\n

\u201cLook anywhere near water, particularly open water, like larger reservoirs (and) some of the big river drainages. \u2026 I think no matter where you are in Colorado, if you go near water, you\u2019ve got a good chance of seeing a bald eagle.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a great time to look for eagles. We just ask people to remember to keep their distance and be respectful. If the eagles are changing their behavior in response to your presence, you\u2019re probably too close, but it\u2019s a great time to go look at wildlife.\u201d<\/p>\n

There are enough eagles around now that drivers sometimes spot them with a quick glance up to the sky.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is pretty common to see them when you\u2019re driving somewhere, especially because a lot of our roads and highways follow drainages or low points in the landscape where eagles and people are likely to intersect. We do have eagles in and around Denver, both during the breeding season and the winter (and) you\u2019re certainly more likely to see them there in the winter than during the summer.\u201d<\/p>\n

The best time of day to spot eagles:<\/div>\n

\u201cYou can see them for a good chunk of the day. \u2026 Of course, they\u2019re foraging for part of the day, but eagles do a lot of just sitting and roosting. So any time of day is an OK time to look.\u201d<\/p>\n

What they look like:<\/div>\n

Mature eagles are known for their snowy white heads and tails. Younger eagles can be a little harder to identify:<\/p>\n

\u201cPeople often get a younger eagle confused with golden eagles because it takes four to five years for them to get their adult plumage, but they are significantly larger than our hawks or our falcons. And if you see a congregation that includes some adult eagles, chances are the younger birds that you\u2019re seeing without the white head and tail are probably also bald eagles.\u201d<\/p>\n

How many are here:<\/div>\n

Colorado has about 300 resident pairs. Eggs are laid in mid-February and the eaglets leave the nest around June.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe don\u2019t have as good a count of our wintering eagle population but (birding website and app) eBird suggests that Colorado\u2019s portion of the bald eagle population is 15 times higher during the winter compared to the breeding season.\u201d<\/p>\n

What they eat:<\/div>\n

\u201cDuring the spring, summer and warmer months, eagles are doing a lot of fishing in Colorado (and) they\u2019re eating prairie dogs. We do have a fairly robust population of Black-tailed prairie dogs in Colorado. In the wintertime, bald eagles are focusing more on waterfowl concentration areas. So any place we\u2019re getting lots of geese, there\u2019s a good chance that we\u2019ve got a good number of eagles concentrating in those places as well.\u201d<\/p>\n

To read more stories from Colorado Public Radio, visit www.cpr.org<\/em><\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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