The Influence of Food Abundance and Next Location on Behavior and Next Success of Bald Eagles (Haliaeetus Leucocephalus)

I found trees used as nest sites for eagles tended to be large and close to the water. I used Akaike Information Criterion to examine models containing four landscape variables. All models with strong support contained the distance to water variable, which had a strong negative effect indicating that as nest distance to water increased, nest success decreased. The effect of nest distance to humans on nest success was unclear, since I found equal positive and negative affects. The nest distance to meadows had a weak negative effect indicating (as with distance water) the farther the foraging area the lower the nest success. The nest distance to roads had a weak positive effect indicating roads act more as a disturbance than a foraging area. Knowledge gained concerning nest location and nest success can be used to interpret the effect of food on reproduction for this species as well as other raptors with similar reproductive ecology.