Bald Eagle Recovery on California Channel Islands

courtesy of Peter Sharp

The return of bald eagles to the California Channel Islands has been a slow but steady effort that has aided the Channel Island fox recovery on the northern islands. A robust bald eagle population keeps away golden eagles, island fox predators.  

Island fox recovery has been incredibly rapid. More typical of efforts to save endangered species, bald eagle conservation has spread across decades: 

• 1967 bald eagle listed as endangered species
• 1970s bald eagles become extinct on the Channel Islands
• 1980 - 1986: 33 young bald eagles are reintroduced to Catalina Islands 
• 1987: eggs laid by bald eagles on Catalina Island fail to survive because of continuing high levels of DDT in marine ecosystem
• 1989: bald eagle eggs taken from Catalina Island nests and incubated. Later hatchlings or foster chicks are returned to nests. 
• 2000 - 2002: juvenile bald eagles reintroduced to the northern Channel Islands 
• 2006 first chick hatched without human assistance on the Channel Islands in 50 years; female A-49
• 2007 bald eagle eggs hatch on Catalina Island without human assistance
• June 2007 bald eagle taken off of the Endangered Species List
• 2012 Female A-49 nests for the first time on Santa Cruz Island, but first chick does not survive
• 2013 MILESTONE EVENT - Female A-49 and mate become the parents of female chick A-89 the first second-generation bald eagle chick successfully fledged on the Channel Islands since the beginning of the recovery effort

According to the biologists managing the bald eagle recovery program, fifteen pairs of bald eagles attempted to nest on the Channel Islands last year. See a photo of A-89 and the full accounting of bald eagle nesting on the Channel Islands in 2013 at the Institute for Wildlife Studies.

As a large predatory bird, the bald eagle plays an important role on the California Channel Islands. For more about bald eagle recovery SEE Video: Return Flight: Restoring the Bald Eagle to the Channel Islands by the Filmmakers Collaborative 

Bald Eagles and Island Foxes

Tani is learning about the bald eagles on the Channel Islands and you can too. 

photo courtesy of Peter Sharp, IWS

Bald eagles went extinct on the Channel Islands following the use of DDT in Southern California. While this chemical insecticide successfully killed insects around homes and on agricultural crops, it stayed in the environment. The chemical ingredients of DDT take many years to disappear or degrade. They were washed from fields and cities into streams, rivers and eventually the ocean. 


When small animals ate the chemicals, they were in turn eaten by larger animals. Seafloor worms were eaten by fish, and the fish were eaten by the bald eagle and the brown pelican. The chemicals accumulated in top predators like theses large birds. The DDT didn't kill the eagles directly, it caused them to be unable to lay eggs with hard shells. When the mother eagle sat on her eggs they cracked. No eaglets were born and the bald eagles disappeared completely from the Channel Islands.


Today DDT is no longer legally used in the United States. Part of the effort to return the Channel Islands to their natural state was to relocate young bald eagles to Santa Cruz and Santa Catalina Islands. These reintroduced bald eagles have grown-up. They are doing well and reproducing.

You can watch the bald eagles live as they raise their chicks through the on-line EAGLECAM

As of May 1, 2011 the chicks are small gray fluffs in the nest.  They are growing up just as the island fox pups are growing up.

Watch a video from the EAGLECAM where an island fox visits the bald eagle nest.


Follow Tani's adventures as an island fox grows up on Twitter or Facebook.

Bald Eagle Update: Spring 2007

The recovery of island fox populations on the northern islands is linked to the successful return of bald eagles to the Channel Islands. (Why bald eagles went extinct on the Channel Islands in the 20th century)

Bald eagles stake out territory for themselves and help to keep out golden eagles which prey on unsuspecting island foxes.

This spring has been filled with wonderful successes for nesting bald eagles on the Channel Islands.

• U.S. Fish & Wildlife reports “Two Bald Eagle Chicks Hatch Unaided on Catalina Island”
• Catalina Island Conservancy announces “Third Bald Eagle Chick Hatches Naturally on Catalina Island”
• Channel Islands National Park finds bald eagles nesting for the second year on Santa Cruz Island
• You can watch the bald eagle chicks grow up via NestCam as part of the Catalina Island Bald Eagle Restoration Project conducted by the Institute for Wildlife Studies.
• Hear the Latest Bald Eagle News from Dr. Peter Sharpe, Institute for Wildlife Studies when he talks on “Bald Eagle Restoration on the Channel Islands” at Channel Island National Park Wednesday May 9 at 7:00 PM.

Each Channel Island is a delicate ecosystem. Restoring habitat and supporting a healthy bald eagle population is vital to saving the endangered island fox.

Island foxes are presently having their pups out on the islands. Stay tuned for Updates from the Fox Conference in June and come support Friends of the Island Fox at the Los Angeles Zoo & Botanical Gardens’ Fox Festival Saturday May 19th.