THE bald eagle is abundant in the backcountry of Alaska, Minnesota and other northern states, but you don't have to trek far to get a glimpse of our national symbol, which recently took wing from the endangered species list.
Like many paparazzi-pursued icons, the bird of prey with the snowy white head has put down roots in Southern California, within a few minutes' drive of our crowded freeways and cookie-cutter developments.
Bird lovers and shutterbugs can spot the flourishing \o7haliaeetus leucocephalus \f7nesting, hunting and soaring near lakes and seashores in the Southland. Although bald eagles are more prevalent during their winter migration here, some have become year-round residents.
Catalina Island, for example, is home to about 26 bald eagles that nest and hunt year-round near the shores at Two Harbors on the less inhabited side of the island. In April, the island marked the first unaided birth of an eagle chick in 50 years.
"It's impossible to miss their big, beautiful white heads," said Leslie Baer, a spokeswoman for the Catalina Island Conservancy, which has helped rebuild wildlife habitat on the island.
Bald eagles have become so prevalent around Big Bear Lake in the San Bernardino Mountains that forest officials now offer two-hour daily van tours, beginning in December, around the lake to the eagles' hunting and nesting grounds. There's even a Valentine's Day eagle tour that comes with flowers, chocolates and Champagne.
It's been an amazing comeback for the bald eagle, once a symbol of America's environmental failures.
From 1967 to 1995, the bird was listed as endangered in 43 of the Lower 48 states under the federal Endangered Species Act. (It previously had been listed as threatened in Wisconsin, Minnesota, Michigan, Washington and Oregon.) The pesticide DDT was largely to blame for the population plunge.
In July 1995, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service upgraded the bald eagles' status from "endangered" to "threatened." (Under the act, endangered species are afforded more protections than threatened species because they are thought to be closer to extinction.)
Last month it was announced that the reduced use of DDT, the expansion of habitat restoration and the help of captive-breeding programs had revitalized the bald eagle population enough to remove it from the threatened list.
