ENEMIES 



The bald oaglo 1ms few if any 

 vertebrate enemies other than man. 

 Many of the smaller birds are })rone 

 to jiester bald eagles, partieidarly 

 dnrino- the nesting season, bnt noth- 

 ing more serions than temporai'V 

 discomfort can be charged to these 

 attacks. The crow and the eastern 

 kingbird frequently harass the bahl 

 eagle, which on rare occasions will 

 turn on its tormentors. Herri ck 

 relates an incident in which a pair 

 of diminutive gnatcatchers, only 

 slightly larger than hummingbirds, 

 irritated an adult eagle to the point 

 that it moved to another perch far- 

 ther from the home tei'ritory of the 

 small birds. 



Man. however, has had a marked 

 effect on the abundance of the bald 

 eagle. This Avas amply demon- 

 strated in tlie coastal region of 

 Alaska where, over a period of ol 

 years, possibly as many as 100,000 

 bald eagles were killed as the result 

 of the bounty law. It is the con- 

 sensus of many comi)etent observers 

 that bald eagle numbers were mate- 

 rially reduced along the principal 



waterways in the southeastern part 

 of the Territory. 



Tlii-oughout the United States 

 tlie status of the Iwild eagle has been 

 one of steadily di'creasiiig numbers 

 largely because of the activities of 

 man either against the birds them- 

 selves or through modilication of 

 their habitat and destruction of 

 nesting sites. Of significance in 

 this connection is the fact that the 

 nestling bald eagles banded by 

 Charles T.. Broley (1047) during 

 the i)eri()d lO.'iO—tC) and recovered 

 later (48 of tliem ) weiv. with two 

 e.\ce])tions, killed within 1 year 

 after tlieii- I'elease. And this degree 

 of shooting })ressure was exerted in 

 our Eastei-n States largely through 

 a ])eriod of years when the bald 

 eagle had been given com])lete i)ro- 

 tection under Federal law (see 

 p. ID). 



Periodically, storms of hurricane 

 intensity have dealt havoc to nest- 

 ing eagles not only by destroying 

 their nests but also the young, 

 which require 12 or more weeks 

 before they are equipped to live 

 awav from their home. 



LEGISLATION 



UNITED STATES 



Although (he Continental Con- 

 gress ado])ted the bald eagle as a 

 national symbol to be used on the 

 Great Seal of the Cniled States, on 

 coins, and in other ways, 4a ws pro- 

 tecting the bird were not considered 

 until many years later. Early in 

 l'.>.")(». ;i serious and iicarlv success- 



ful etlort was made to enact Federal 

 legislation to jirotect it. On Janu- 

 ary (), bills entitled "Bald Eagle 

 Protection Act" were introduced in 

 both the Senate and the Tfouse of 

 IJepi'esentatives. 4'liis would have 

 ;i ll'oi'dcd ])rotection to t he hald eagle 

 with lln' |)i-ovis() that "it shall not be 

 unlawful to kill any such eagle * * * 

 A\lieii ill the act of dest roviiiir wild 



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