Pueblo Eagle Day Festival

Pueblo Eagle Day Festival

PUEBLO, Colo. – Colorado Parks and Wildlife’s 2017 “Pueblo Eagle Days” festival features eagle-viewing opportunities, hands-on activities for youngsters, live bird programs, native American dancers and educational presentations by raptor experts. Each year the event draws hundreds of visitors from across the state to learn more about these unique birds of prey.

“Eagle Days is a great opportunity to get outdoors in the winter, include the entire family on the outing and learn something about these majestic birds,” said Monique Mullis, park manager at Lake Pueblo State Park and one of the event’s organizers.

Numerous bald eagles spend the winter at Lake Pueblo State Park and the Pueblo State Wildlife Area. They roost in the large trees and dine on fish from the large expanse of open water.

The area around Pueblo Reservoir offers excellent opportunities to view a variety of birds of prey year-round, but during the winter months, the bald eagles are the star attraction. The eagles tend to gather at the west end of the lake, but park employees and visitors report sighting individual eagles around the south marina, the Boggs Creek area and the river corridor below the dam, especially when ice forms.

Programs at the Park Visitor Center and entry to the Visitor Center from Hwy. 96 are free, but vehicles are required to have a Park’s Pass if they enter or drive through other portions of the park.

Sunday events will take place at the Nature and Raptor Center of Pueblo.
For more information about Pueblo Eagle Days and a complete schedule of events, visit www.puebloeagledays.org.
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More about eagles: Eagles are the number one animal that Americans say they want to see in the wild. Colorado, in the winter offer prime viewing opportunities for both bald eagles and golden eagles. Up to 1,200 bald eagles spend the winter in Colorado.

Bald eagles are attracted here by relatively mild winters. Look for them near open water where they hunt for fish or ducks.

Most of the bald eagles leave Colorado in late February and March, heading north to nesting grounds in the northern U.S., Canada and Alaska, but a few remain year-round.

Golden eagles prefer rugged cliffs with adjacent open country where they feed on a variety of birds, reptiles and mammals, though jackrabbits are their primary prey. Unlike bald eagles, golden eagles are common nesting birds in Colorado but they too move about during different times of the year. There are roughly 900 active golden eagle nests in Colorado.

The majority of the golden eagles nest in the northwest part of the state during the summer. In wintertime, golden eagles are more broadly distributed throughout the state, but they are particularly visible on the eastern plains.

Eagles are protected birds, which makes it illegal to kill or possess eagle feathers, body parts, nests, eggs or live birds without a permit from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.

At one time, the bald eagle was an endangered species; however, conservation efforts help the birds recover. The Fish and Wildlife Service removed bald from the endangered species list in 2007.

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