The bald eagle population in Delaware is on the rise. According to the Delaware Division of Fish and Wildlife, there are more bald eagle nests in the First State than there have been in the last 40 years.
Kate Fleming, with the Delaware Division of Fish and Wildlife, said bald eagle numbers in Delaware used to be dangerously low.
“If we look back to say the 1960’s, we knew of three pairs of bald eagles that were documented attempted nesting in Delaware,” Fleming said.
In their most recent assessment, Fleming said they documented 70 nesting pairs.
That’s up from just 10 pairs in 1994 and 38 pairs in 2004.
She said the increase is likely due to a ban on the pesticide DDT, which caused bald eagle eggs nationwide to be thin and fragile, decimating the population.
“It takes a while to work its way out of the system,” she said.
The exact number of eagles in the state is hard to pin down. The Department of Fish and Wildlife has tracked 70 nesting pairs of eagles, but that doesn’t include chicks or juveniles.
