I captured this image of this fabulous three year old this past Sunday in an area near Denver International Airport. While I love the image, I am equally fascinated about the story of this specific eagle.
In the picture you will notice the bands around its legs. These are often put on birds to help study migration patterns, behavior, life-span and more.
This bird was originally perched on a pole and posed for some nice sitting pictures in which I could read the text on one of the bands. I decided to try to see if I could learn more and while it took some effort, it was worth it.
I started with the Colorado Parks and Wildlife which led me to the USGS and finally to the USDA who was able to tell me the history of this gorgeous raptor.
It was trapped in May 2014 on the airport grounds and relocated to southern Colorado. It was banded at that time to help track it should it be spotted again. Raptors found near airports are oftentimes relocated to prevent ‘bird strikes’ with airplanes which of course are deadly for the bird but also endanger the planes.
In this case, it appears the move didn’t do much to discourage it from hanging out near the airport as I initially spotted it within a half mile of the runways and took this pictures about two miles from them.
