MONTEZUMA - Seeing a bald eagle may instantly conjure up thoughts of its status as a symbol of America.

But it was not long ago that this powerful bird was in serious danger. Slowly, however, the eagle has been gaining strength in numbers.

On Sunday afternoon, the visitor center at the Montezuma Wildlife Refuge was packed for the second in a series of discussions on birds of the region. Mike Allen of the DEC was on hand to present a slideshow on the bald eagle with a particular focus on the birds of the Montezuma area.

“These birds represent a lot,” Allen said. “They bring a lot of different thoughts to mind in people. But for a long time they were on the endangered species list and now they are on the protected species list and they are on the threatened list in New York state, but they are making a comeback.”

Indigenous to the lower 48 states (plus Alaska) as well as parts of Canada and Mexico, bald eagle populations have struggled to thrive in New York, but in recent years that has changed.

Allen's presentation, titled “The Return of the Bald Eagle: The 30 year Journey,” looked at the progress of a project that has its roots back in 1975 and officially kicked off in 1976.

Allen said by this time, the DEC was aware of only one active eagle nest in New York state in the Livingston County area.

Due to the development of area bald eagles once called home as well as DDT, which was a prevalent pesticide at the time, the birds were struggling to find a home and to breed.

“It takes four or five years for these birds to reach maturity,” Allen said. “And things like DDT made it difficult for them to reproduce.”

Allen said that during a season, bald eagles will lay between one and three eggs and if one or more hatch, it is consider successful. To help the eagles re-establish themselves in the state, the DEC decided to adapt a program first developed at Cornell focused on peregrines.

Allen said that considering the symbolic significance of bald eagles and the timing that coincided with the nation's bicentennial, many believed it was a publicity stunt.

He said it was a serious effort to help these birds get a foothold back into significant populations in the state. A process known as hacking, or placing young birds in a known nest to be raised by the parent birds, was started, as well as releasing birds from areas like Wisconsin, Minnesota and Alaska into the wild in places like Montezuma to help raise the population.

It has been a slow process, but one that has paid dividends over the past 30 years. Allen said that in 1976, there was one known pair of eagles in the wild, while in 2007 there were 145.

When the project began, there weren't any known young in the wild, while in 2007 that number has soared to 152 known fledglings in the wild.

Allen said that the birds have taken hold not only in what have historically been known to be nesting places like central New York, but also in other areas such as western New York, the Adirondacks and the Albany region.

While this growth has helped get bald eagles off the endangered species list and it has eased the needs of the DEC to hack or release birds into the area, the DEC still diligently observes and protects the animals in the wild.

“Now our primary focus is observation,” Allen said. “We watch them and see what they do, where they go, how they live. That isn't always easy to do, but that is our main focus right now, studying these birds.”

While Allen was speaking inside, Paul Schnell, of Braddock Bay Raptor Research, was outside with Liberty, a bald eagle, drawing a great deal of attention to the majestic bird perched on his arm.

“They are a magnificent bird to look at,” said Melissa Nielson, of Auburn.

“You don't get this kind of opportunity to see them so up close, just a beautiful bird to be able to see like this, fascinating.”

To learn more

The Bird of the Month series will continue at 2 p.m. March 16 and will focus on bluebirds.