Home Range of a Breeding Male Bald Eagle (Haliaeetus leucocephalus) Tracked via Satellite Telemetry in Kentucky

Abstract

Haliaeetus leucocephalus (Bald Eagle) is a well-studied species, and information on their nest abundance and population trends is widely available. However, research on the movements and home range of nesting Bald Eagles in the interior US is lacking. In this study, we used a solar-powered Argos platform transmitter terminal (PTT) with global positioning system (GPS) capabilities to monitor the movements of an adult, breeding male Bald Eagle, captured at Ballard Wildlife Management Area, KY, from 29 April 2012 to 23 October 2013. We generated minimum convex polygons (MCP) for comparisons to previous studies and used 95% and 50% fixed kernel density estimators (KDE) to estimate home-range size and core-use areas, respectively, during nesting and non-nesting periods. Estimates of home range and core-use areas were slightly larger during the non-nesting period (MCP = 420.0 km2, 95% KDE = 1.6 km2, 50% KDE = 0.2 km2) when compared to the nesting period (nesting MCP=415.0 km2, 95% KDE =1.3 km2, 50% KDE = 0.01 km2). Our home range and core-use estimates were smaller than previous studies using comparable methods, suggesting that habitat quality at this site may be high.