Raptor program director to give Zoom talk on bald eagles

Friends of Merrymeeting Bay’s seventh presentation of its 27th annual Winter Speaker Series, “Bald Eagles; Recovery, Research & Conservation,” features Chris DeSorbo, director of the Raptor Program at Biodiversity Research Institute.

The event is set for at 7 p.m. Wednesday, April 10.

Winter Speaker Series presentations are held via Zoom and are accessible at fomb.org.

Chris DeSorbo, director of the Raptor Program at Biodiversity Research Institute, will give a talk about bald eagles via Zoom on Wednesday, April 10. Submitted photo

The bald eagle is among the most widely recognized North American bird species. Nearly extinct from the widespread use of DDT insecticide weakening their egg shells, the bald eagle continues to recover well in Maine and is one of relatively few success stories of species protected under the Endangered Species Act — so much so it was delisted in 2007, according to a news release from Ed Friedman with the Friends.

While no longer protected under the ESA, eagles are still protected by the Migratory Bird Treaty Act and the Bald and Golden Eagle Protection Act. Merrymeeting Bay has been the second most successful eagle recovery area in Maine after Cobscook Bay along the Canadian border.

An eaglet. Logan Route

DeSorbo will review a multitude of causes for the population decline, subsequent recovery, and the role Maine’s population played in supporting it. He also will review some past and present bald eagle research occurring in Maine and elsewhere, and continuing challenges the species faces in its post-recovery era.

DeSorbo joined BRI in 1998, and oversaw a common loon behavioral ecology and toxicology study in Maine’s Rangeley Lakes region. As BRI expanded its mercury research to include other species, the raptor program was born. Through the program, he initiated what has now become the most extensive bald eagle sampling and banding effort in Maine’s history.

Recent BRI raptor program projects have emphasized various studies of migrating raptors, and using individual tracking technologies to inform conservation and management decision-making relevant to bald eagles, peregrine falcons, and other raptor species.

Speaker Series presentations are free and open to the public. To see speaker biographies, full event schedules, video recordings of past presentations, become a member, and learn more about how to help protect Merrymeeting Bay and the Gulf of Maine, visit the Friends’ website.

For more information, call FOMB at 207-666-3372 or email Friedman at edfomb@comcast.net.