An eagle flies above the Des Moines River after grabbing something to eat on Tuesday. (Photo: Tom Alex)
By Jane Burns
Copy Editor and Staff Writer
I moved back to Des Moines almost four years ago, after leaving in 2000. A few months later, when the weather got cold, I discovered I wasn’t the only one who had moved back. In my time away, eagles had come back, too.
The discovery on a cold January day was stunning. Were those eagles in the trees by Scott Avenue and Southeast First Street bridge? In Des Moines? Since when? I turned the car around, parked and counted 33 of them. I couldn’t believe it.
I knew there were more eagles around than when I was a kid. I’d seen them in recent years in eastern Iowa and southwest Wisconsin. But no one hipped me to the fact that they were in downtown Des Moines. (Somehow, I missed the clue of the riverside apartments called Eagle View Lofts.) Until that day, I had no idea they had arrived in town in the years I was not living here.
And they’re here all right. A record 5,795 eagles were spotted in Iowa by volunteers and natural resources professionals primarily along the Des Moines and Mississippi rivers, according to the 2025 Bald Eagle Midwinter Survey. This year’s survey was just completed, and the numbers will be available soon.
I’m not the only obsessive. I often see cars parked on the bridges at Scott Avenue and Southeast Sixth Street, as well as photographers on the riverbanks, aiming long lenses to catch eagle action near the open water by the dam. Farther north, the dam by the Women of Achievement bridge offers good views, too. This time of year, it’s definitely the best show in town. (Sorry, Civic Center, Hoyt Sherman Place, Wooly’s, et al.)
Events throughout the state celebrate the eagles. On Feb. 7, the city of Des Moines will host its annual Bald Eagle Day from 10 a.m. to noon on the Southeast Sixth Street bridge. Parks staff will be there to answer questions and provide binoculars and spotting scopes.
On Feb. 22, the Dallas County Conservation Board, along with the Iowa Audubon Society and the Army Corps of Engineers, will host its Eagle Watch from noon to 4 p.m. at the Cottonwood Recreation Area at the open waters below the Saylorville Reservoir. Spotting scopes or binoculars are recommended, though a limited number will be available to share. It’s free, but registration is requested.
Before you head out to the water, here are a few bits of trivia about our seasonal visitors:
Bald eagles are not bald. About 2,000 white feathers cover their heads. Their name comes from the Old English word “balde,” which meant “white.”
Eagles just became the national bird. No, really. They’ve been on the nation’s Great Seal since 1782, but no one got around to naming them the national anything until President Biden signed a law naming the bald eagle the official national bird in December 2024. The designation even got bipartisan support.
Benjamin Franklin was not impressed. The Founding Father once wrote that the bald eagle was “a Bird of bad moral Character.” He thought they were slackers who stole fish from other birds.
Bald eagles were a symbol, but they were not safe. In the 18th century, there were an estimated half a million bald eagles across the country. That number dropped to just 417 nesting pairs by 1963. First, landowners shot and trapped them because they incorrectly believed eagles were a threat to their livestock. Then the pesticide DDT nearly wiped out the population. Now, the United States is home to 300,000 eagles, including 71,400 nesting pairs.
They disappeared from Iowa altogether. By the early 1900s, there were no reports of eagles in the state until a nesting pair was spotted in 1977. The latest survey reported 423 nesting pairs.
Eagles were saved by the government. In 1940, Congress passed the Bald Eagle Protection Act, which made it illegal to trap and shoot eagles. DDT was banned in 1972. A year later, eagles were one of the first species protected by the federal Endangered Species Act.
And now they’re everywhere. In 2015, Iowa reached a milestone of eagles being spotted in each of the state’s 99 counties.
Sources: Iowa Department of Natural Resources, National Eagle Center, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Survey.
