10/07/2026
🦅🍁 EAGLE 101: EAGLES AND FALL MIGRATION 🍁🦅
Both of North America's native eagle species - Bald Eagles and Golden Eagles - are more than suited for cold winter weather. Sub zero temps, snow and wind are not a problem for them. Thus, fall migration does not play out the same for them as it does with other native migrants. However, how conditions impact their food sources... that's another story and conditions can force them to migrate during winter.
Bald Eagles may or may not move at all. Southern eagles really have no need to move. Waters of the Gulf and southern lakes and rivers typically don't freeze over leaving them access to fish throughout the winter season. Northern Bald Eagles may be forced to move, but it really depends on if conditions cut them off from reliable food sources. The Upper Mississippi River typically sees a winter influx of eagles from northern Minnesota, Wisconsin and Canada due to frozen lakes, rivers and reservoirs up north. However, this winter will be interesting. If the Super El Nino in the Pacific delivers a mild winter season, far fewer Bald Eagles may need to move in search of food. Only time will tell.
As for Golden Eagles... the only truly migratory population in North America (which we're still learning about) migrates from Nunavut in extreme northern Canada to portions of the eastern United States, likely because the prolonged darkness and extreme winter conditions just below the Arctic Circle make hunting nearly impossible. Thus, they will move south in the coming months like clockwork and arrive in mid to late November.
So, this winter will be interesting! Will Bald Eagles be on the move? We'll have to wait and see what the season brings. Photo by Seth Vreeman.
