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Perched in Seattle: A viewers guide to urban eagles
Story and photos by Mike Matson

I’ll always remember the first time I saw a bald eagle in Seattle. It was an early summer morning and riding my bike across Mercer Island. I looked up and saw a mature bald eagle flying above me, its huge wings flapping smoothly along in an effortless motion. For about a minute it flew along at the speed I pedaled and we shared the crisp morning together. As quickly as it had arrived, it then turned away, headed north toward the lake and was gone.

Having grown up in Seattle during the 80’s and 90’s, I had no idea bald eagles lived in Seattle. I was surprised an eagle could live in such a heavily developed area. After a bit of research I discovered Seattle has several dozen resident bald eagles inhabiting its city parks and neighborhoods.

Bald eagles have been living in Seattle since the early 1980’s, but this hasn’t always been the case. Over the past 200 years bald eagle populations in the United States have been devastated by a combination of three destructive factors: hunting, habitat destruction, and the widespread use of chemical pesticides like DDT.

Introduced as an effective insecticide in the 1940’s DDT bio-accumulates in the food chain, building up in the tissue of large predators like bald eagles. Tragically for raptors, DDT significantly weakens eggshells. Nesting eagles, weighing as much as 13 pounds, began crushing their own eggs before they could hatch. Unable to reproduce, eagle populations plummeted and by 1963 as few as 417 breeding pairs remained in the lower 48 states.

In 1962, a biologist named Rachel Carson wrote her famous book Silent Spring, warning that the continued use of DDT “may well make it necessary for us to find a new national emblem.” Ten years later DDT was banned inside the United States. Then in 1978, the US Fish and Wildlife Department further protected bald eagles by adding them to the Endangered Species List.

Starting in the 1970’s the Nature Conservancy began purchasing and protecting critical eagle habitat. In the last 25 years bald eagles have clawed their way back to healthy populations in the lower 48 states. With approximately 8,000 nesting pairs today, bald eagles have been downgraded from Endangered to Threatened on the Endangered Species List.

Eagles in Seattle

Annual salmon runs and the ever-presence of water, both fresh and marine, make the Pacific Northwest a bald eagle stronghold. Despite rapid urban growth over the past several decades, the Seattle area has much to offer eagles.

With pockets of old-growth forests still lingering within city parks and residential communities, and water in almost every direction, Seattle provides both a steady food supply and adequate nesting habitat for bald eagles.

Apparently unfazed by the close proximity to millions of humans, at least two dozen bald eagles now call Seattle home. Active nests have been spotted in many urban locations including Woodland Park, Seward Park (two pairs), West Seattle’s Duwamish Green Space, Discovery Park, Broadmoor Golf Club, Renton’s Seahurst Park, and Mercer Island (three pair).

In addition to 20 mature eagles, several immature birds live in Seattle. This abundance of nesting pairs, coupled with the presence of young birds, provides evidence that bald eagles are not only successfully reproducing, but are establishing themselves in the evolving ecosystem of the city. Young eagles usually nest within 100 miles of their parents, providing hope of a greater, more widespread population to come. Seattle is lucky to be involved in the most successful recovery of an endangered species to date.

Where to eagles watch:

Armed with binoculars and some patience, you can find nesting and mature bald eagles in several convenient locations throughout the city. And if for some reason you don’t sight any eagles, several captive eagles can be viewed up close at Woodland Park Zoo.

West Seattle’s Duwamish Head Green Space

West Seattle eagles can be found in the large black cottonwood trees that tower above Salty’s Restaurant on the west side of Harbor Avenue. In winter and spring, when the leaves have fallen off the trees, look for their conspicuous stick-nest spilling from the upper branches of a central cottonwood 200 yards uphill from the road. While getting close to this nest is difficult and invasive to neighbors, these birds can sometimes be seen close-up on the pilings next to Salty’s or soaring above Elliot Bay. Keep your eyes pealed for dive-bombing eagles plucking fish from the water’s surface or stealing meals from the lesser-matched seagulls.

Discovery Park

The Discovery Park bald eagles are long-time Seattle residents. They began nesting in the park in 1989. Immature birds, which can easily be mistaken for golden eagles because they quickly reach full size but don’t acquire their white head and tail for 5 or 6 years, are often seen here playing the air currents rising from the clay bluffs. These birds often perch in the cottonwood trees at Magnolia Park on the south side of the bluff. Their nest, just southwest of the Ballard Locks, can be seen clearly from the locks near Anthony’s Home Port Restaurant. Look carefully at the fir trees just left of the steep cliffs rising from the water.

Seward Park

Seward Park is the best example of intact bald eagle habitat within our city. The park is a peninsula in southeast Seattle jetting out into Lake Washington, creating a sheltered bay where wildfowl seek refuge from winter winds. Eagles patiently hunt from the old-growth Douglas firs, cedar, and hemlocks lining the shore. The habitat is so good, in fact, that two bald eagle pair live within one half mile of each other. Eagles have been nesting in Seward Park since 1980. In 1999, each pair raised two chicks. Consider too, that three bald eagle pairs live only a few miles away on the south half of Mercer Island and it quickly becomes clear this park of the lake is excellent habitat.

Woodland Park/Green Lake

The Woodland Park eagles are Seattle’s most visible eagles. Green Lake joggers often spot these birds sitting atop the trees on Duck Island at the north end of the lake. Another popular tree for this pair overlooks the Lawn Bowling area in lower Woodland Park. Not surprisingly, these birds have been closely watched in recent years by the staff at Woodland Park Zoo. Raptor specialist Tom Aversa explains their intriguing nesting behavior.

“Bald eagles have been using Woodland Park for years, but only began nesting here in 1999, fledging one young,” he said. “They nested again 2001, this time fledging two birds, one of which fledged a few days early, necessitating zoo staff to catch the bird which was precariously close to Aurora Avenue. We moved it to a perch low in a fir in the central portion of the park, and after that it was fine, eventually flying to a higher, safer perch where it was fed by its parents.”

Interestingly, this pair changed the location of their nest from lower Woodland to a Douglas fir in the Elk Yard inside Zoo grounds.

“The eagles considered the zoo tree as an alternative nest site,” says Aversa. “Often raptors maintain two or more nest locations and may alternate between them.”

In 2002 and 2003 the eagles successfully raised two young each year. During each of the past two nesting seasons the zoo has provided public visitors with a spotting scope to allow viewing of the eagle family. Plan a trip to the zoo in the spring to capitalize on this unique opportunity.