Bald Eagles nesting in Angeles National Forest

A juvenile Bald Eagle in its nest along Highway 39 near the San Gabriel Dam on Tuesday April 19, 2016. (Photo by Keith Durflinger/San Gabriel Valley Tribune)

Southern California chapter network manager Travis Abeyta was interviewed by San Gabriel Valley Tribune about a pair of amateur birders discovery of a pair of Bald Eagles in Angeles National Forest. From the article:

Abeyta positively identified the bird as a bald eagle chick, about 10-12 weeks old, using photographs provided by this newspaper group.

Hikers and amateur birders Joann and Dennis Sanderson of Azusa saw the juvenile bald eagle, covered in brownish feathers and with a sharp, curved beak but lacking the distinctive white head, peeping out of the nest Saturday morning. On Sunday evening, the couple returned and saw an adult bald eagle with the white-feathered head. The same adult pair were featured in a photo Dennis Sanderson took in May 2015, shown nesting in the exact same tree, located a few miles north of Azusa in the San Gabriel Mountains...

The large nest, built high in an old, columnar tree, near a body of water good for fishing yet far away from people represent telltale bald eagle nesting behavior, Abeyta said.

Mostly, bald eagles in California thrive in the Klamath Basin and in the upper Pacific Northwest, he said. But the species, the beloved national bird of the United States, has been spotted in more unusual places of late, including Irvine Lake in Orange County and Lake Cachuma in Santa Barbara County, he said...

Kimball Garrett, the ornithology collections manager for the Los Angeles County Natural History Museum and author of “Birds of the Los Angeles Region,” said finding a nesting bald eagle in this area is a rare thing. He also positively identified the bald eagle from pictures provided to him.

“I’m not aware of any nesting of this species in L.A. County in several decades,” he said.
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