"Today the bald eagle is everywhere in Florida — I see them all the time, perched on channel markers along the lagoon. But it wasn't always like that. In 1963, there were only 417 nesting pairs left in the entire lower 48 states. The symbol of America almost went extinct in America. This is a story about how we almost lost the eagle — and how, together, we brought it back."
The Eagle That Nearly Vanished
The bald eagle (Haliaeetus leucocephalus) is the national bird of the United States, but by 1963 it had nearly disappeared from the lower 48 states. The continental population bottomed out at just 417 nesting pairs — down from an estimated 100,000 or more before European settlement. In Florida, the eagle had once been abundant along every major river, lake, and coastline, including the Indian River Lagoon. By the early 1960s, eagle nesting had collapsed across the state. The bird that appeared on the Great Seal of the United States was on the verge of going extinct in the country it symbolized. The bald eagle's recovery is one of the greatest conservation success stories in American history — and it offers a model for every species we're trying to save today.
