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Apple River, IL) The Eagle Nature Foundation has just released the results of their Annual Mid-Winter Bald Eagle Count, which was conducted on Jan. 26 and 27, 2013. The count was conducted during basically a 2 hour period on Jan. 26, from 9 am to 11:00 am by hundreds of volunteers throughout the Midwest from Northern Wisconsin and Minnesota down to Louisiana.

On that date 3822 bald eagles were seen, 2919 of which were adults, 36 were subadults and 741 were immature, less than 4 years of age. This yields a 21.0% immature ratio to adults. This ratio is down over 5% from last years count. This flies in the face of the Fish & Wildlife reporting that record numbers of young have been raised each year for the past 20 years. In 1965 this percentage was 24.8%. In the almost 50 years since then only one year had a lower percentage and that was in 2006 with 19.7% . There has to be a reason and ENF is constantly looking for that reason.

Over the years this Annual Count has recorded almost 84,000 bald eagles with an average of 1,580 birds per year, that yielded an average immature percentage of 27.3%. The average immature percentage for the past 10 years is below what any 10 year average has been since the 1960’s.

ENF is concerned that many communities of bald eagles are losing numbers of birds and also seeing their percentages of immatures dropping. This year the Wisconsin River had a record number of total bald eagles, but their percentage of immatures dropped by 4.5%. The Mississippi River had 1670 more eagles than last year but the percentage of immatures dropped by 5.5% to 17.6%, the lowest ever.

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For more information contact: Terrence N. Ingram, Exec. Director, Eagle Nature Foundation, 300 East Hickory St., Apple River, IL 61001 Phone 815-594-2306

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