Answer: Arizona bald eagles place their nests within a mile of a creek, lake, or river, however there are rare exceptions. Nests are placed mostly on cliff edges, rock pinnacles, and in cottonwood trees, however, artificial structures, junipers, pinyon pines, sycamores, willows, ponderosa pines, and snags of these trees also have housed eagle nests.
Bald eagle breeding areas vary in size depending on the resources available and proximity of other breeding areas. Territory size, nest location, and resources are affected by availability of nest sites (cliffs, pinnacles, trees), the water system (regulated/unregulated river and/or impounded lake), and/or diversity and abundance of food. Breeding areas on the regulated lower Verde River are the densest in the states with eight Breeding Areas downstream of Bartlett Dam above the Salt River confluence. At impounded lakes (Alamo, Pleasant, San Carlos) where few fish exist in the source stream, they tend to forage within the lake's boundaries.
Answered by: Southwestern Bald Eagle Management Committee Homepage , 4/24/2005
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