Ecologists Saved Bald Eagles with Helicopter Parenting

One of the country’s largest captive-breeding programs for the once endangered species has helped it recover in California

• By Susan Cosier on April 30, 2021

Biologist feeds a seven-day-old bald eagle chick with a hand puppet in 2006 before having the bird fostered in a nest on Santa Catalina Island in California. This effort was part of a bald eagle restoration program then led by the Institute for Wildlife Studies. Credit: Peter Sharpe

Scientific American on our citizen science work in partnership between the US Fish and Wildlife Service and The Cornell Lab of Ornithology