A Volunteer Citizen Science Program
Bald Eagles, one of the largest birds in North America, are native only to our continent and are a successful example that protection under the Endangered Species Act works! With over 1,200 nesting pairs, Florida has one of the largest population of Bald Eagles in the United States, excluding Alaska. The nesting season extends from October 1 through May 15, with individual pairs often returning to the same nesting territory year after year.

Threats to Bald Eagles include collisions with cars and power lines, gunshot wounds, and poisonings. Loss of nesting and foraging habitat through development and mitigation also seriously jeopardizes nesting success for eagles in Florida. These birds are strongly territorial and are known to engage in battles over nesting habitats, causing injury and even death. Although these disputes are uncommon elsewhere, the state of Florida has witnessed an increase in eagle mortality and injury due to territorial fights during the last decade.

Florida’s rapidly changing environment currently finds Bald Eagles nesting successfully in urban areas. This increased exposure to human activity and its resulting pressure on the eagle population prompted the Audubon EagleWatch Program.

Audubon EagleWatch seeks information about Bald Eagles, active nest locations and possible disturbances or threats to nesting activities. The program is designed to educate volunteer participants in general eagle nesting biology, applicable laws, the identification of nest threats, monitoring techniques and the verification of previously unrecorded active eagle nests.

This data is compiled and used to assist the state’s Mid-winter Annual Bald Eagle Nesting Survey by documenting both urban and rural eagle nesting activity, successes and failures. The U.S Fish and Wildlife Service also utilizes EagleWatch data to enhance their conservation and law enforcement efforts.

If you are interested in participating in this Citizen Science program, download a registration form or contact Lynda White via email for more information.

Program Objectives

Since urban eagle nesting activity in Florida has increased dramatically in the last decades, the Audubon EagleWatch Program seeks to:

• Compile data for publication to document urban nesting activity
• Emphasize monitoring of urban pairs to record long-term nesting trends
• Identify potential threats to nesting success since most threats are related directly or indirectly to human activity
• Expand Audubon EagleWatch on a statewide basis while generating increased public awareness of our national symbol. This will include programs designed to educate the citizens of Florida in ways to help ensure the continued recovery of the bald eagle

What laws protect Bald Eagles today?

The Bald and Golden Eagle Protection Act (BGEPA) – specifically defines illegal acts including “the take of any Bald Eagle…alive or dead, or any part, nest or egg thereof.” ‘Take’ also includes “to pursue, shoot, shoot at, poison, wound, kill capture, trap, collect, molest, or disturb.” Fines can be $5,000 and/or two years of imprisonment.

The Migratory Bird Treaty Act (MBTA) – protects migratory species with fines for violations ranging up to $2, 000 and/or two years of imprisonment.

What does Audubon EagleWatch accomplish?

The Audubon EagleWatch Program started in 1992 in the Central Florida region, with only 22 volunteers. Today the program is statewide, reaching more communities each year and continuing to heighten awareness of Bald Eagle nesting activities throughout the state. Recent accomplishments include:

• Monitoring 270+ nests, more than 20% of the state’s population
• Utilizing over 250 informed volunteers to monitor active nest sites
• Locating and verifying an average of 6 new nests per year
• Saving nests from destruction by illegal development
• Promptly rescuing fallen eaglets after storms

WILDLIFE ALERT EMERGENCY NUMBER
TO REPORT FISH AND WILDLIFE VIOLATIONS:
1-888-404-FWCC

Audubon EagleWatch is sponsored by the Disney Wildlife Conservation Fund.

• For information on eagles and to view an active Bald Eagle’s nest, visit Audubon’s EAGLECAM.
• Learn how you can participate in other Audubon Citizen Science programs!
• Find upcoming EagleWatch programs in your area!

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Adventia Birds of Prey Centers of America
Adventia is a participatory organization whose strength lies in its broad base of support. To be successful in our efforts to save Florida’s birds, we need you!

Join the ranks of 40,000 likeminded Floridians and the 100 years of conservation leadership we represent!
When you join Audubon of Florida, you also automatically enjoy membership in National Audubon and your local Audubon chapter. And birds aren’t the only ones who’ll benefit!

Membership benefits:

• Membership in a local chapter. Local chapter activities include meetings, socials, bird walks, fieldtrips, education programs and advocacy campaigns, just to name a few!
• Discounts at Audubon Sanctuaries and Nature Centers. Take advantage of this opportunity to connect with natural habitats around North America.
• A one-year subscription to AUDUBON magazine, the flagship publication of the National Audubon Society.
• A one-year subscription to The Florida Naturalist, Audubon of Florida’s statewide conservation publication.
• Special opportunities to participate in Audubon Ecology Camps and travel adventures.
• Your voice will be added to Audubon of Florida’s statewide conservation efforts. Make a difference and let decisionmakers hear from you on important statewide conservation issues through Audubon of Florida’s advocacy network.

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Raptor of the week: The Eastern Barn Owl.
The Barn Owl (Tyto alba) is the most widely distributed species of owl, and one of the most widespread of all birds. It is also referred to as Common Barn Owl, to distinguish it from other species in the barn-owl family Tytonidae. These form one of the two living main lineages groups of owls, the other being the typical owls (Strigidae). T. alba is found almost anywhere in the world outside polar and desert regions, as well as all of Asia north of the Alpide belt, most of Indonesia, and the Pacific islands.^[1]

It is known by many other names, which may refer to the appearance, habitat or the eerie, silent flight: White Owl, Silver Owl, Demon Owl, Ghost Owl, Death Owl, Night Owl, Rat Owl, Church Owl, Cave Owl, Stone Owl, Monkey-faced Owl, Hissing Owl, Hobgoblin or Hobby Owl, Dobby Owl, Golden Owl, Scritch Owl, Screech Owl, Straw Owl, Barnyard Owl and Delicate Owl. “Golden Owl” might also refer to the related Golden Masked Owl (T. aurantia). “Hissing Owl” and, particularly in the USA, “screech owl” refer to the piercing calls of these birds, but the latter term usually refers to typical owls of the genus Megascops. The scientific name, established by G.A. Scopoli in 1769, literally means “white owl”, from the onomatopoetic Ancient Greek tyto (τυτο) for an owl—compare English “hooter”—and Latin alba, “white”.^[2]

The Ashy-faced Owl (T. glaucops) was for some time included in T. alba, and by some authors its Lesser Antilles populations insularis and nigrescens still are. The Barn Owls from the Indopacific region are sometimes separated as Eastern Barn-owl, Australian Barn-owl or Delicate Barn-owl (T. delicatula). While this may be warranted, it is not clear between which races to draw the line between the two species. Also, some island subspecies are occasionally treated as distinct species. While all this may be warranted, such a move is generally eschewed pending further information on Barn Owl phylogeography.^[1]

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Do you know where your cat is right now?
Little do people realize how their feline friends are impacting listed birds. Little kitty is more likely raiding a nest right now because many birds nest in lower-lying trees and shrubs. Each spring and fall the changes in our seasons are marked by massive movements of birds – migration.

In the fall, more than 350 species of birds leave for Mexico, the Caribbean, Central and South America, traveling thousands of miles to their winter homes.

Then as early as February and March, the miraculous happens again – the migrants begin their return. It’s hard to imagine spring, summer or fall without the color, sounds and drama of our migratory birds.

Few of us think about what we can do to help these songbirds survive their grueling trip, and the stresses that await them – breeding and rearing their young.

Perhaps it’s because only a few of the migrants are common in our suburban backyards. Some have names many of us recognize – the ruby-throated hummingbird, chimney swift, purple martin, gray catbird, wood thrush and northern oriole. Others may be familiar to the more serious birdwatchers – the ruddy turnstone, yellow-bellied cuckoo, common nighthawk, yellow bellied flycatcher, scarlet tanager, bobolink, red-eyed vireo and Cape May warbler. Collectively, these birds are known as neotropical migrants because they nest in Canada and the United States, and winter in Mexico and points south.

During the 1980′s, scientists observed a decline in numbers of migratory birds. What happened to the wood thrushes and cerulean warblers that breed in the large northeastern forests? Where are the hermit and Townsend’s warblers of old growth forests; the dickcissels and bobolinks of our grasslands; the prairie warblers and yellow-breasted chats of our shrublands; and the yellow-billed cuckoos and willow flycatchers that nest in trees bordering our western streams?

Ornithologists and backyard bird watchers noticed a similar decline in some populations of common flickers, meadowlarks, field sparrows and belted kingfishers. These “short distance” migrants breed in the United States and Canada, and generally winter north of the Mexican border.

What has happened to these birds? Habitat loss and degradation is part of the problem. Habitat needed for food and shelter during the winter months is disappearing in Latin America. In the United States and Canada there is not enough habitat for some species to nest and raise their young. In some areas where appropriate habitat can be found, it may be too close to human disturbances, or the habitat may be too small. This makes these birds more susceptible to cowbird nest parasitism and predation by crows and jays, problems directly related to changes in land use. (Cowbirds lay their eggs in nests of other birds leaving them to raise cowbird young.)

The hazards we humans create in our backyards, workplaces and public places are also a part of the problem.

What can be done to help migratory birds? The US Fish & Wildlife Service and its counterparts in Canada, Mexico, Central America and South America have joined with environmental organizations, government agencies and concerned citizens on a project whose goal is to ensure the survival of the birds we share – the neotropical migrants. The program is called “Partners in Flight” – “Aves de las Americas.”

We urge you to join us. This publication offers a brief introduction to what you can do to help conserve these avian treasures.

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