Officials confirm there are now five bald eagles nests in the Columbus area. Columbus Mayor Jim Lienhoop says city workers stumbled onto the newest nest.
"We were scouting for a place where we could do a little bit of cleanup along one of our water ways. And noticed this humongous nest up in the tree, and low and behold there were some really big birds flying in and out of it," Lienhoop says.
Flatrock River runs through Columbus, providing a food source for the eagles. Out of the five nests near Columbus, four of them are active.
Indiana DNR Non-game Bird Biologist Allisyn Gillet says over time the nests can reach the size of a Volkswagon Beetle, weighing as much as two tons. She says she's not surprised some of the nests are close to the city.
"There's just so many eagles around that there's not necessarily enough habitat for them out there," Gillet says.
She says the bald eagle re-introduction program released 73 eagles from Wisconsin and Alaska during the 1980s at Monroe Lake. Three hundred pairs of bald eagles now nest in Indiana.