The oldest known bald eagle in the state has been seen at Lake Monroe again. Clare Bozell spotted the bird in early November, making it the second year in a row Bozell has seen the bald eagle, identified as C43, in the same area.
Biologists starting a bald eagle restoration program brought bald eagle C43 along with more than 70 others to Indiana in 1988 from Alaska.
The bald eagle was released and C43 could potentially be still nesting on the Lake Monroe property according to Amy Kearns, the assistant non-game bird biologist with the DNR Division of Fish & Wildlife.
"This bird may be one of the top 10 oldest wild bald eagles in the United States, with only seven other banded eagles reported living to 28 years or more," Kearns said in a statement.
The bird hasn't always stayed in Indiana. C43 was seen in Tennessee in 1989 and in Kentucky in 1990.
At the time biologists released bald eagles at Lake Monroe, the animals were on the state and federal endangered species list. Approximately 250 to 300 bald eagle nesting territories were estimated in Indiana in 2016.