Midwinter Bald Eagle Survey

The Midwinter Bald Eagle Survey takes place during the first two weeks of January each year. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) coordinates the Midwinter Bald Eagle Survey, in which several hundred individuals count eagles along standard, non-overlapping survey routes. Nationwide counts of eagles were coordinated by the National Wildlife Federation from 1979 until 1992, when the Bureau of Land Management's Raptor Research and Technical Assistance Center assumed responsibility for overseeing the count. Responsibility for count coordination shifted to the National Biological Survey (1993-1996) and later to the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), Forest and Rangeland Ecosystem Science Center, Snake River Field Station. In April 2007, the USGS established a partnership with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) to maintain the long-term, national coordination of the survey, data analysis, and reporting. USACE will assume responsibility for coordinating the national survey, organizing the results, maintaining the long-term database, and jointly compiling, analyzing, and reporting survey data gathered with USGS following previously used methods (Steenhof et al. 2002) in 2010 and 2015.