At 20 years old, she lived a long life – a few years shy of the North American longevity record for a wild golden eagle. I found her dead in late winter some 50 miles northwest of Leadore, Idaho, where she was banded as an adult bird in 1994. But this would not be the end of her journey.
I packaged and shipped her to the National Eagle Repository near Denver, Colorado, one of about 3,500 bald and golden eagles received each year by this one-of-a-kind facility. Established by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) in the early 1970s, the repository serves as a central location to receive, salvage, store, and distribute eagles and eagle parts and feathers to Native Americans for use in religious and cultural ceremonies.
Both bald and golden eagles are highly revered in American Indian cultures, symbolizing trust, honor, strength, power, and wisdom. According to traditional beliefs, the Creator chose the Eagle above all birds to be the Master of the Sky and emissary between human beings and the Creator. The golden eagle, also known as the “war eagle,” is associated with courage in battle. Its feathers are used in healing and strengthening ceremonies for warriors, including soldiers returning from Iraq and Afghanistan.
An eagle feather is often presented to Native American students at their high school graduation as an honor of great achievement and important rite of spiritual passage.
Idaho, the state I live in and worked in as a state wildlife biologist, contributes its share of eagles to the repository’s supply chain. As many as 100 bald and golden eagles are collected each year that perish as a result of electrocutions, power line strikes, vehicle collisions, poisonings, disease, illegal shooting, incidental trapping, or natural causes. Wildlife officials follow up with power companies, transportation agencies, and other partners to correct these issues and avert future mortalities. Contributing salvaged eagles to the repository takes some of the sting out of these losses.
Each eagle arriving at the repository is assigned a tracking number and inspected for body and feather condition, species, and age. A small staff fills orders for feathers, heads, talons, wings, tails, trunks, and whole eagles used for religious ceremonies by many of the 500 federally-recognized American Indian tribes. In 2015, the repository received ~3,500 eagles and fulfilled ~4,500 orders. Despite FWS efforts to ship birds as swiftly as possible, it’s not uncommon for applicants to wait from 1 month for certain eagle parts to upwards of 4-1/2 years for a whole immature golden eagle due to high demand among Tribal members for the bird’s beautiful black and white tail feathers.
Demand that outstrips the repository’s supply has raised legal issues over American Indian sovereignty, religious freedom, and access to eagles for traditional purposes. In March 2012, the FWS granted a permit to the Northern Arapaho Tribe of Wyoming allowing it to kill or capture two bald eagles for their sacred Sun Dance ceremony. While this precedent did not unleash a flood of applications from other tribes, the salvage efforts of the National Eagle Repository and its partners help to offset the pressure to take birds from the wild, thereby protecting eagle populations.
The eagles amassed at the repository also offer a treasure trove of biological and genetic samples for eagle conservation work. Researchers have established a tissue and feather database from repository samples to improve understanding of movements and genetic structure of continental eagle populations. By understanding the movements of wide-ranging eagles using stable isotope analyses, researchers working with wind-energy companies can develop strategies to minimize eagle mortalities caused by wind turbines (e.g., siting turbines away from flyways, increasing visibility of power lines). See Dr. Gary W. Roemer’s report on the landscape genetic structure of the western continental golden eagle population here. Assessing and mitigating these impacts is critical sooner rather than later: According to the American Bird Conservancy, by 2030 the number of turbines in the U.S. will increase 10-fold and could account for the deaths of 1.4 to 2 million birds, including bald and golden eagles, each year.
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The banded female golden eagle from east-central Idaho made one final journey — to a Native American home where she now presides as spiritual messenger over daily blessings and traditional ceremonies.
Where in life she roamed the wild Idaho landscape, she continues her journey as Master of the Sky, where she flies higher and sees further than any other bird.
It’s peak, glorious spring!
please share any interesting, exciting (or even mundane) bird happenings in your area!