By Andrew Berry
Fourth Golden Eagle tagged at Bernheim will help researchers understand their ecology, behavior, and conservation needs
A fourth golden eagle has been added to the 11-year tracking project, which has provided rare insight into the behavior of these elusive and iconic apex predators. Researchers believe this newly tagged eagle may be the current partner of Athena, a female golden eagle tracked by Bernheim since 2019. Athena’s movements and life history have become central to understanding golden eagle studies in Bernheim and across eastern North America.
The adult golden eagle, believed to be a male, was captured on January 21, 2026, and fitted with a GPS satellite transmitter that allows researchers to track his movements across wintering, migratory, and summer ranges in the United States and Canada. The research is conducted in coordination with Cellular Tracking Technologies, Conservation Science Global, and numerous partners and supporters, including the Eastern Golden Eagle Working Group and the Beckham Bird Club. This latest tagging builds on Bernheim’s long-term commitment to understanding the ecology, behavior, and conservation needs of eastern golden eagles through a combination of camera trapping, field observation, and GPS transmitters.
A Long History of Golden Eagle Research
Bernheim’s golden eagle research began decades ago with camera trapping, which documented the seasonal presence of golden eagles wintering in the forest. Those early efforts revealed how these birds use large, intact forest landscapes for hunting, feeding, and roosting while avoiding humans and relying on expansive interior forest to survive the winter months.
In 2015, Bernheim researchers tagged an adult male golden eagle later named Harper, opening a first glimpse into the behavior of eastern golden eagles that winter around Bernheim. Four years later, in 2019, researchers captured and tagged Athena, Harper’s mate. Together, they became the first known pair of golden eagles tracked simultaneously in eastern North America, providing unprecedented insight into how paired golden eagles interact on wintering grounds, migrate, and use breeding territories.
Tracking data showed Harper and Athena roosting together, feeding in the same areas, and defending space at Bernheim. Yet their movements also challenged long-held assumptions. During migration, the pair often traveled separately—sometimes on routes hundreds of miles apart—reuniting later at the breeding grounds in northern Canada or returning to the same wintering forests in Kentucky.
Loss, Persistence, and Renewal
In 2021, Harper perished in Canada, bringing an abrupt end to a bond that had reshaped scientific understanding of golden eagle behavior. Athena survived, but her loss raised fundamental questions. Golden eagles are long-lived birds often described as mating for life, yet very little is known about how they respond to the loss of a mate or how replacement partnerships form.
For several years after Harper’s death, Athena continued to interact with other golden eagles at Bernheim. Researchers watched closely to see whether she would be able to reestablish a breeding partnership, but distinguishing individual eagles is very difficult without tracking. The question around her breeding status remained unanswered until 2024, when collaboration with Parks Canada and Wapusk National Park staff confirmed a golden eagle with a chick in Athena’s known nest. Data from Athena’s transmitter verified that she was the nesting bird—signifying not only successful breeding, but that she had replaced her former mate.
This confirmation represented a rare opportunity in raptor research. While paired golden eagles have been studied before, documenting mate replacement and following the same individual through two distinct breeding partnerships would be exceptionally uncommon.
A New Eagle Enters Athena’s Orbit
The newly tagged eagle has been observed with Athena multiple times during the winter of 2025–26. Researchers believe he may be the same eagle previously seen flying with her and communicating while roosting. Since his capture, the pair has continued to spend time together—feeding in the same areas, roosting nearby, and vocalizing back and forth—suggesting a coordinated relationship.
Winter observations at Bernheim provide a rare glimpse into how golden eagle pairs interact. Athena and the newly tagged male often communicate from neighboring trees, exchange calls across ridgelines and maintain proximity day after day. Typically, one eagle feeds while the other perches nearby, watching. They frequently roost in the same tree or in adjacent trees within the same area.
Physical contact between the birds is rare. Golden eagles are not highly tactile animals; their bonds are expressed through tolerance, coordination, and shared space rather than frequent preening or contact. These subtle behaviors, repeated consistently over time, are key indicators used by researchers to identify territorial pairs.
International Lifestyle
Athena’s life, and now the life of this newly tagged golden eagle, spans international borders. Research has allowed tracking their entire annual cycle—from wintering forests in Kentucky, through migratory corridors across the Midwest and Great Lakes, to breeding territories in northern Canada.
Tracking golden eagles across these vast distances allows researchers to ask questions that cannot be answered from any single location. How do golden eagles reconnect across distances exceeding 1,700 miles? Where do partnerships form—on the breeding grounds, the wintering grounds, or somewhere in between? And how do these birds navigate increasingly fragmented landscapes year after year?
Important Questions Ahead
As exciting as this capture is, it also brings researchers face to face with some of the most important unanswered questions in golden eagle ecology.
Does a female golden eagle like Athena retain not only a nesting and breeding territory, but also a wintering range, effectively anchoring herself to a landscape and bringing potential mates into her orbit?
Will this newly tagged male end up within Athena’s breeding area this summer in Wapusk National Park? If so, will the two migrate together, or—like Athena and her former mate Harper—will they take separate routes and reunite after traveling hundreds of miles apart?
Is this the same eagle Athena has associated with in prior winters, or could she be interacting with multiple individuals over time? Until now, researchers could not answer this question with certainty. With a transmitter and band now in place, they can finally follow both birds as individuals across time and space.
And finally, what do wintering pairs of golden eagles need to survive in Kentucky and throughout the Ohio Valley? What habitats do they rely on, where do they roost, and how do large, protected landscapes like Bernheim function as winter refuges for these wide-ranging raptors? Answering these questions will help guide how forested landscapes are protected not only for golden eagles, but for countless other species that depend on intact wilderness.
Athena and her new companion will be leaving Bernheim’s forests soon and heading north. Where they go, how they travel, and whether they reunite again may bring researchers closer than ever to understanding how a golden eagle might reconnect with a partner after the loss of a mate.
Special Thanks To Our Supporters
Bernheim Forest and Arboretum cannot do this work alone. This research is made possible through partnerships with Cellular Tracking Technologies, Conservation Science Global, the Eastern Golden Eagle Working Group, Parks Canada, Wapusk National Park, Beckham Bird Club, Kentucky Audubon Council, the friends and family of Judge Boyce Martin Jr., and the many members, donors, volunteers, and supporters of Bernheim Forest whose commitment to conservation makes long-term research like this possible.
