Newaygo Banded Bald Eagle

February 9 Email:

Hi Ric, 

I was going to comment on your banded eagle post (see Bruce Delamarter's photo posted January 23 below) but was unable to add the picture of the banded eagle Shawn and I saw the same day (1-23) in Newaygo County north of White Cloud.  I am sending you a few photos of the one we saw.  Unfortunately we did not notice the band until we looked at the photos, so we did not get a close up of the band to be able to read it.

Have a great birding day,
Terra Berry

Terra, thanks for the report and photos.  I don't know which local Bald Eagle nests (if any) are still having their babies banded, but this time of year there are plenty of them down here from further north as well.  Based on the "saw-toothed" look of the flight feathers on the back edge of the wings (longer ones are juvenile first-year feathers still retained in second year), I'm guessing this bird was born and banded in 2013.  The banded eagle that Bruce photographed on that same day posted below is a juvenile born in 2014.  - Ric