Migrating in the Fall?

Fall migration is connected to food sources. Not all eagles migrate. If their breeding territory is a northern habitat where lakes and streams freeze or prey animals hibernate, eagles will fly south to find open water and food. Depending on location, they usually migrate to the coast or to large rivers near dams, and gather on feeding and roosting areas where fish are abundant.

Eagles do not migrate in the way that many other birds do. Some biologists do not characterize bald eagles as true migrants, preferring to describe their movements away from and back toward their breeding territories as seasonal movements. This is because almost all bald eagles only move away from their nesting areas as far as they need to survive, meaning in order to find the food.

Bald eagles that migrate south in the fall to areas with sufficient food return north in the spring to nest.

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