By Andrew Berry
A Year in the Life of a Golden Eagle: Hermes’s 2025 Journey
Hermes, an adult male golden eagle tracked by Bernheim Forest and Arboretum, continues to provide a rare and eye-opening window into the movements of a wide ranging, non-territorial eagle in eastern North America. During 2025, Hermes used at least 174 unique protected areas across Indiana, Ohio and Michigan in the United States and the Canadian provinces of Ontario and Québec. His summer range included Nunavik on the Ungava Peninsula, a remote Artic region in northern Québec. His movements connected landscapes from the hardwood forests to the subarctic tundra.
Based on 108,903 GPS locations received from his satellite transmitter, Hermes traveled at least 10,508 miles during 2025. He reached altitudes of over 1,300 meters (4,304 feet) above ground level on July 3, 2025, far north in the subarctic landscapes of the Ungava Peninsula. His highest recorded latitude, 61.425°, places him deep within subarctic tundra environments. Together, these metrics highlight both the extraordinary scale of Hermes’s movements and the limitations inherent in tracking a bird that ranges across some of the most remote landscapes on the continent.
Hermes was captured and fitted with a solar-powered Argos satellite transmitter on February 23, 2024. As of the end of 2025, he has been tracked for more than 670 days, allowing researchers to begin distinguishing consistent patterns from exploratory movements. Unlike Athena, a nesting female golden eagle with strong fidelity to defined seasonal ranges, Hermes represents a different life-history strategy—one shaped by mobility, flexibility, and the absence of a defended breeding territory.
January – March 2025: Migrating South
During the first quarter of 2025, Hermes exhibited a pattern of winter residency punctuated by regional movements among large, protected landscapes. His movements during this period were relatively constrained, with slower movements south possibly reflecting reliable prey and favorable habitat.
By January 20, 2025 Hermes had moved into the Assinica National Park Proposed Area, a vast boreal landscape draining toward James Bay. He took a slow route as he crossed into the United States by late February.
On February 20, Hermes was documented in Pigeon River Country State Forest in northern Michigan. Often referred to as “the Big Wild,” this large, undeveloped forest block lies within the Lake Huron watershed of the St. Lawrence River system and provides expansive winter habitat for wide-ranging raptors.
Hermes returned to Big Oaks National Wildlife Refuge in southeastern Indiana on March 13, 2025, a site he also visited during the winter of 2024. This refuge, embedded within the Ohio River watershed, protects extensive prairies, shrubland, wetland, and forest habitats that support small mammals and waterfowl. Hermes’s repeated use of Big Oaks across multiple years suggests selective site fidelity to dependable winter habitat.
April – June 2025: Migrating North
Hermes’s spring movements followed a clear northward progression through major continental watersheds, beginning in the Great Lakes region and extending into Arctic-draining systems.
On April 10, Hermes moved through North Channel Provincial Park along Lake Huron, followed by Matinenda Provincial Park, both of which protect Canadian Shield forests, wetlands, and shorelines. These areas likely served as movement corridors during early spring, supporting foraging and energy-efficient travel as ice conditions eased.
By April 17, Hermes entered northern Québec and overlapped with the Wichishkw-Uubauquushduuk Territorial Reserve, a large boreal conservation landscape within the Sakami River watershed.
Hermes continued northward into Baie-aux-Feuilles National Park Reserve on April 24, entering the Leaf River watershed—one of Nunavik’s largest river systems, closely tied to many eastern golden eagles and the movements of the Leaf River migratory caribou herd. Between late May and mid-June, Hermes also used the Rivière-Arnaud Territorial Reserve, reflecting flexibility in response to late-spring conditions.
July – September 2025: Summer Range
The third quarter he spent time in his summer range, a time of most expansive travel during Hermes’s annual cycle. From July through mid-September, he ranged broadly across the central Ungava Peninsula, moving across open tundra, large unnamed lakes, river corridors, and upland plateaus.
Hermes entered Pingualuit National Park on July 24, coinciding with peak summer productivity and the post-calving aggregation of the Leaf River caribou herd. Continuous daylight and high summer productivity create ideal conditions for wide-ranging predators during this period.
For much of late summer, Hermes was not consistently associated with named protected areas, instead ranging across vast unfragmented landscapes. This pattern suggests a strategy of tracking localized productivity rather than remaining anchored to specific sites.
October – December 2025: Roaming across Leaf River Watershed and northern Quebec
From early October through late October, Hermes remained within Baie-aux-Feuilles National Park, continuing to use the Leaf River watershed as daylight shortened and freeze-up began. By early December, he entered Tursujuq National Park, one of Québec’s largest protected areas, and passed through Lacs des Loups Marins, or Lakes of the Seals, known as refuge for the endangered Ungava Seal, the only freshwater seal in North America. The lakes in Tursujuq National Park are remote and wild, and in December would have been iced over.
Hermes remained in northern Québec through late December, including time spent within the Proposed Chisesaakahikan-et-de-la-Rivière-Broadback Biodiversity Reserve, confirming that he did not migrate south ahead of the onset of true winter. At this time of the year the region only receives about 8 hours of daylight, a factor that may restrict his feeding and movement. His final locations of 2025 were only about 100 miles south of his position at the end of 2024, suggesting an overwintering pattern.
A Nomadic Strategy
Hermes’s 2025 movements stand in clear contrast to Athena’s territory-anchored annual cycle. As a nesting female, Athena has exhibited strong fidelity to both breeding and winter ranges. Hermes, by contrast, follows a nomadic, non-territorial strategy, ranging widely across seasons without defending a fixed nesting territory.
Yet his movements are not random. Hermes repeatedly used key regions including Big Oaks National Wildlife Refuge, central Michigan forests, the Leaf River watershed, and multiple protected landscapes across Nunavik, indicating selective fidelity to landscapes that reliably support him at different times of year.
Long-term tracking of Hermes offers a rare opportunity to observe whether an adult male golden eagle will eventually transition from nomadic behavior to territoriality. Whether he will establish a breeding territory, locate a mate, or ever return south to Kentucky remains unknown. Continued monitoring will be essential to answering these questions.
A Continental Conservation Story
Together, Hermes and Athena illustrate two successful life-history strategies within the same species. Their combined stories underscore the importance of large, connected, and protected landscapes, from eastern hardwood forests of the Ohio Valley to subarctic tundra of northern Canada, that allow golden eagles to persist across seasons and life stages.
This long-term research is made possible through the continued support of the Judge Boyce Martin Jr. Birds of Bernheim sponsors, the Beckham Bird Club, the Kentucky Audubon Council, Cellular Tracking Technologies, Conservation Science Global, the Eastern Golden Eagle Working Group, and many other dedicated partners and supporters.
To learn more about Eastern Golden Eagles, visit the Eastern Golden Eagle Conservation Plan published in 2023.
