Bald Eagle Nest Found in Philadelphia

PHILADELPHIA (AP) — Wildlife authorities have found the first bald eagle nest in the city in more than 200 years, the Pennsylvania Game Commission said Friday.

Officials are not disclosing the exact location of the nest to avoid disturbing the site, but agency personnel and volunteers are monitoring it closely, the commission said.

ÒWe don't know if the nest will result in the pair successfully breeding and laying eggs yet, but we are very hopeful,'' Dan Brauning, commission wildlife diversity supervisor, said in a statement.

About one-fifth of the eagle nests in the state fail each year due to disturbances, predators and bad weather, he said.

Brauning said the confirmation of a nest within the city Òdemonstrates the resilience of this species and its apparent growing tolerance to human activity.''

Officials said last year that they had confirmed more than 100 bald eagle nests in the state for the first time in more than a century. The state began a campaign to re-establish the eagle population in 1983, when only three nesting pairs remained in Pennsylvania.

Preliminary counts indicate that bald eagles are nesting in at least 31 of the state's 67 counties. The largest concentrations are found in the wetlands of Crawford, Mercer and Erie counties; along the lower Susquehanna River and its tributaries in Chester, Lancaster and York counties; and in the Poconos and Upper Delaware River region, officials said.

Bald eagles were upgraded from endangered to threatened status by the federal government in 1995 and by the state a decade later.

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