INDIANAPOLIS — Indianapolis Animal Care Services (IACS) helps all types of animals, whether fur or feathered.

In a social media post, IACS says a concerned citizen reported a large bird in distress. Upon his arrival, animal control officers found a juvenile bald eagle with injuries to its eye and wing.

The bird was safely transported to the shelter, where a licensed wildlife rehabilitator took over its care.

IACS

Although the bald eagle was removed from the federal government’s endangered species list in 2007, it was not removed from Indiana’s endangered species list until just three years ago.

The majestic birds of prey had virtually disappeared in Indiana by the end of the 20th century due to habitat loss, pesticide use and other factors, and the last recorded bald eagle nest in the state was in 1897.

But Indiana is now home to such a large bald eagle population that the state’s Natural Resources Commission removed the birds’ designation as a state species of special concern in 2021.

State wildlife biologists estimate that in 2020 there were about 300 pairs of nesting bald eagles in 84 Hoosier counties.

The birds remain protected by state and federal laws. The Department of Natural Resources says anyone who sees a bald eagle in Indiana should watch the birds, their nests and roosts from a distance of at least 330 feet (100.6 meters) to avoid disturbing them.

The department reintroduced bald eagles to Indiana between 1985 and 1989, when 73 eaglets from Alaska and Wisconsin were raised in Lake Monroe in southern Indiana, just southeast of Bloomington, and released when they were old enough to fend for themselves.

That effort returned a breeding population to Indiana. In 1991, the state recorded its first successful bald eagle nesting, indicating that the native species was recovering.

The bald eagle reintroduction program was Indiana’s first endangered species restoration project. Those efforts rely primarily on donations to the Indiana Nongame Wildlife Fund.