June 20 is American Bald Eagle Day: Wildlife Center of Virginia uses day to educate

The American Eagle Foundation created a special day in 1995 to celebrate the American Bald Eagle.

Every June 20, the United States celebrates American Bald Eagle Day when wildlife professionals and enthusiasts take the time to recognize our national symbol and appreciate an amazing animal.

The Wildlife Center of Virginia admitted its first Bald Eagle patient in 1985, an animal that had been poisoned by carbofuran, a potent pesticide. After full rehabilitation and release, the Center’s work was not done. The Center led a long but successful campaign to ban the most common form of carbofuran in Virginia and across the U.S. A single policy change has saved the lives of millions of birds, including Bald Eagles, every year.

In the past 38 years, the Center has admitted hundreds more Bald Eagles, with an average of 45 individual eagle patients admitted each year since 2011. Some were hit by vehicles or sustained physical injuries from territorial disputes with other eagles. Other eagles were juveniles failing to thrive on their own, or young eaglets discovered after storms destroyed their nests. Some eagle patients suffered from the devastating effects of lead toxicosis.

Despite the differences in their circumstances of rescue and the treatments they receive, each Bald Eagle that arrives at the Wildlife Center of Virginia is treated with the same goal in mind: release back into the wild. Historically, gathering information on rehabilitated eagles post-release was a difficult task. Biologists, researchers and wildlife professionals working together with various government agencies have been banding wild birds, including eagles, for more than a century. Permanently affixing metal or plastic anklets with unique identification codes to a bird’s leg offers a definitive, but limited, method of tracking an individual’s movements and life span. Recent advancements in technology now make it possible to collect data on the movements, life spans and behaviors of Bald Eagles in the wild.

In the past 13 years, Virginia Department of Wildlife Resources biologists have fitted almost two dozen Bald Eagle patients at the Center with GPS transmitters before their release as part of an ongoing research project. Access to the data on tracked eagles is a fantastic opportunity for post-release studies for the Center.

The data confirms a crucial message worth sharing with the public: wildlife rehabilitation works. Tracked eagles released from the Wildlife Center have gone on to live full, healthy and productive lives. Each individual returned to the wild bolsters the Bald Eagle population, supports healthy ecosystems and ensures that future generations of Americans will have the opportunity to feel a personal connection to these magnificent raptors.

The Center’s YouTube channel offers a special National Bald Eagle Day video created by the Center’s Outreach and Education staff that highlights important messages.

You can celebrate American Bald Eagle Day by learning more about the veterinary and rehabilitative care of Bald Eagles at the Wildlife Center on the Center’s Current Patients page. Watch Untamed: Life is Wild, Episode Two: Bald Eagles, as well as the accompanying Untamed Compendium resources!

Look for opportunities to volunteer with wildlife and environmental-based organizations. The Wildlife Center would not be capable of fulfilling its mission, including the care and rehabilitation of Bald Eagles, without the help of dedicated volunteers. The Center also welcomes monetary donations which help provide life-saving and emergency medical care to Bald Eagles, or sponsor Buddy the Bald Eagle through the Center’s Caring for Critters program.