Kentucky’s bald eagle population continues to rise with several new nests popping up in the central and eastern parts of the state.
The Kentucky Department of Fish and Wildlife Resources 2018 Bald Eagle survey shows nearly 25 more occupied bald eagle nests across the state compared to last year.
Notable new nesting territories are around the Licking River, Lake Cumberland, the Green River and along the Ohio River in Lewis and Mason counties. There remains a large concentration of eagle nests in Land Between the Lakes and along the Mississippi River.
LBL Nature Station Lead Naturalist John Pollpeter said the rise of eagle populations can be traced back to a federal ban on the deadly pesticide DDT in the 1970’s.
“The DDT would get concentrated in their body and then it would make their eggshells very weak and thin,” Pollpeter said. “So when the eagles would incubate them, they would often crush the eggs and harm the chicks, possibly killing them.”
Pollpeter said eagles were reintroduced to Kentucky and Tennessee in the 1980’s through a program that brought eagle chicks from Alaska. Bald eagles were taken off of the endangered species list in 2007 but require post-delisting monitoring until 2027.
He said eagles choose to migrate in the winter to places with warmer waters and strong shoreline trees that provide protection for their nests.
The survey is one of two that the Department of Fish and Wildlife Resources conducts each year. The January survey looks at routes for wintering eagles in cooperation with other state and federal agencies.
