Bald eagles were gone from California’s Channel Islands by the mid-1950s. Between 1947 and 1961, large amounts of DDT-contaminated sludge were dumped offshore of Catalina Island, and the pesticide thinned eggshells until nests failed. Human persecution finished the job.
On July 13, 2026, Channel Islands National Park announced the results of the latest nesting season: 14 breeding pairs, at least 16 chicks, eagles nesting on four of the park’s five islands, and the first eaglet to fledge on San Miguel Island since the early 1950s.
Seventy years in the making
The Institute for Wildlife Studies began relocating eagles to Catalina in 1980. On the northern islands, 61 young eagles were released from hacking towers between 2002 and 2006. In 2006 researchers recorded the first successful natural nest on the islands in more than 50 years, on Santa Cruz Island.
By 2013 there were eight breeding pairs on three islands. By 2022 the institute estimated 60 eagles across five islands. The species was removed from the federal endangered list in 2007.
“The recovery of the bald eagle on the Channel Islands stands as one of America’s great conservation success stories,” said Ethan McKinley, superintendent of Channel Islands National Park, in the July announcement.
The season was not without loss. One eaglet died in the Santa Rosa Island Fire that burned in May and June. “This year’s nesting season demonstrates the remarkable resilience of the Channel Islands bald eagle population,” said Erin Weiner, the institute’s eagle project lead.
Why it matters beyond the eagles
The return of bald eagles helped another animal. Golden eagles had colonized the islands after the bald eagles vanished and began preying on the island fox, driving three subspecies to the edge of extinction. Reestablishing territorial bald eagles, which eat fish rather than foxes, was part of the plan that brought the fox back too.
Seventy years after the last nests failed, eaglets are hatching on San Miguel again.
Sources
- National Park Service, Bald Eagles Continue Recovery at Channel Islands National Park (July 13, 2026)
- National Park Service, Bald Eagles
- Institute for Wildlife Studies, Bald Eagle Project History
- Santa Barbara Independent, Bald eagles celebrate another successful nesting season (July 15, 2026)
