Nine bald eagles were spotted during Saturday's first count of the winter season by the San Bernardino National Forest. Five adult and four juvenile bald eagles were observed around the lakes in the San Bernardino and San Jacinto Mountains, including the Big Bear-Baldwin Lake area, Lake Arrowhead/Lake Gregory area, Silverwood Lake and Lake Perris. more ›

It's hard out there for a rare bird. Which is probably why a wild bald eagle has taken to chilling out right next to the bald eagle exhibit at the small Orange County Zoo inside Irvine Regional Park. First spotted last weekend, the wild bird has been spending his mornings and evening "perched in a tree above the zoo's 6-year-old female bald eagle, Olivia," according to the LA Times. more ›

It's just about 11 a.m. and scientists are expected to band two baby bald eagles on Santa Cruz Island, which is 20 miles off the Ventura coast. The event is being broadcast live from the island online here. The bald eagle population within Channel Islands National Park suffered a blow in the 1960s, but recent efforts by the National Park Service and Nature Conservancy have helped bring them back. Today, biologists are banding the chicks by attaching radio and satellite transmitters. Health checks will also be conducted. Background on the chicks can be read here and here. more ›

Last month, LAist told you that two bald eagles had mated and laid eggs on Santa Cruz Island, one of the five islands in Channel Islands National Park. "Great news," Yvonne Menard, spokesperson for park, exclaimed this afternoon. "We have just had two new chicks hatch at the Pelican Harbor nest on Santa Cruz Island." Thankfully, the eagle nest is under the eye of a live webcam. If you're lucky, you might see the two chicks make an appearance. The re-burgeoning Bald Eagle island population was wiped out when the chemical DDT entered the ocean ecosystem. Santa Cruz Island is located about 20 miles from Ventura Harbor. more ›

The 31st annual bald eagle count in the San Bernardino and San Jacinto mountains is slated to begin next weekend and will take place over occasional weekends until mid-March, and the effort is in need of volunteers to take part, reports abc7. The U.S. Forest Service needs people to help them count the eagles, and no prior experience is needed. In fact, Forest Service spokesman John Miller says all you'll need is "some warm clothes, a pair of binoculars and an hour to spare for each count." If this is you, give Matt McDonald with the Forest Service a call at (909) 382-2933. more ›

By the 1960s, America's bird and national symbol could not be found on any of the eight Channel Islands where it had made home before the arrival of humans. Twenty years before, the practice of pouring DDT into the ocean off Palos Verdes Peninsula, mostly at the hands of the Montrose Chemical Corporation, became a 30 year practice resulting in those chemicals going up the marine food chain into Bald Eagles, whose main diet consist of fish. No, it didn't kill the bald eagles, but it was to their eggs--too thin and fragile due to the chemical intrusion, they were easily crushed before the chicks would hatch. Eventually, with no birth cycle, Bald Eagles were gone. more ›