Page 93 - Play Coastal Mississippi - Fall26 - Winter27

Today, people might spot bald eagles anywhere in Mississippi all
year long. Their iconic snow-white head and tail feathers plus bright
yellow beaks and talons make adult bald eagles easy to identify.
Juveniles remain darker until they grow their familiar white head and
tail feathers at about five years old.
Highly adaptive, bald eagles can live wherever they can find food
from swamps and marshes to mountains. Bald eagles love to snatch
fish from lakes, but these opportunistic predators eat whatever
they can catch, including birds, rats, mice, rabbits, and other small
animals.
> Bald Eagle | John N. Felsher
Since eagles love to eat fish, they commonly nest and feed along
wooded shorelines of major lakes and rivers. Eagles make the
largest tree nests of any bird in North America. Made of sticks,
some nests measure more than eight feet across and 13 feet deep.
They might weigh a ton. Some great places to see eagles include
Grenada, Sardis and Ross Barnett Reservoirs as well as along the
Pascagoula and Pearl Rivers.
Some bald eagles nest and breed in the Magnolia State, but like
waterfowl, thousands more migrate to the Coast during the winter.
In Mississippi, the bald eagle population peaks from mid-December
to early March. Migrating eagles frequently return to the same nests
year after year.
Bird watchers might also see a bald eagle’s slightly larger cousin.
More common in the deserts and mountains of the western states
and northern Mexico, a few golden eagles do visit Mississippi,
especially during the winter. Golden eagles prefer more open
country, so people here would more likely spot them around fields
or meadows looking for mice and rabbits.
Bald eagles weigh about eight to 15 pounds. Darker goldens weigh
about the same, but stand slightly taller than their white-headed
cousins. The wingspan of a golden eagle can reach up to about
eight feet long while a bald eagle can extend its wings to about
7.5 feet. People might spot golden eagles around the Davis Bayou
area of Ocean Springs, especially during late winter or early spring.
Eagles and all birds of prey remain protected by federal law.
> Golden Eagle
DID YOU know
The mascot for The University
of Southern Mississippi, located
in Hattiesburg and Long Beach,
is the golden eagle. The Long
Beach campus, located off
Beach Boulevard, is also the
location of the Friendship Oak
and offers many Coastal research
education opportunities and on-
the-job immersive experiences.
> Friendship Oak
 | USM Gulf Park Campus
COASTALMISSISSIPPI.COM OCT 26-MAR 27 I PLAY COASTAL MISSISSIPPI 93