These “allegedly artsy” Golden Eagles courtesy of Corey

… to perils associated with mankind.

To wit: A ruling by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service caps at five the number of Golden Eagles that members of the Hopi tribe can collect from neighboring Navajo lands. The permit allows the Hopis a total of 40 birds that may be sacrificed for use in religious ceremonies. The Navajo also use eagle feathers as part of rituals, but don’t believe in killing the birds. The USFWS conducted an environmental assessment to ensure that southwestern Golden Eagle populations wouldn’t be threatened by the practice, and attempted to reach a solution that would satisfy both tribes. The ruling is important because as recently as three years ago, several Hopi were prosecuted for illegally killing eagles.

Bald-Eagle-Brevard-Fl

Bald Eagle in Brevard County, by Nate Swick

On a somewhat brighter note, ABC News shares the story of a Bald Eagle that lived to see another day, thanks to modern technology. The bird tried to take a fisher’s bait but became tangled in the line. Google came to the rescue, helping the hapless fisher and his family figure out how to free the eagle. (No word on whether the bird actually got to enjoy its snack.)

Written by Meredith Mann
The lowly Red-winged Blackbirds in suburban New York triggered Meredith Mann's interest in birds. Five years later, she's explored some of the the USA's coolest hotspots, from Plum Island in Massachusetts to the Magic Hedge in Chicago to the deserts of Fallon, Nevada. She recently migrated from the Windy City (where she proudly served as a Chicago Bird Collision Monitor, rescuing migrants from skyscrapers and sidewalks) to Philadelphia, where she plans to find new editing and writing gigs; keep up her cool-finds chronicle, Blog5B; and discover which cheesesteak really is the best. And she will accept any and all invitations to bird Cape May, NJ.