Project Overview

A return from extinction

Once widespread across Ireland, the White-tailed Eagle (Haliaeetus albicilla) was driven to extinction by 1909 following prolonged human persecution. After almost 100 years of absence, a major reintroduction effort began to restore this iconic species to the Irish landscape. Between 2007 and 2011, juvenile eagles sourced from Norway were released in Killarney National Park, marking the start of their return.

Ireland's first breeding pair in over a century was recorded in 2012, with the first chicks successfully fledging the following year. Since then, the population has expanded, supported by additional releases carried out at carefully selected sites around Ireland between 2020 and 2025.

Tracking a recovering population

This project, in collaboration with the National Parks and Wildlife Service (NPWS), builds on the most comprehensive raptor tracking efforts ever undertaken in Ireland. Over 150 White-tailed Eagles have been equipped with GPS tags, allowing us to follow their movements in remarkable detail.

These data provide new insights into how eagles explore the landscape, establish territories, form breeding pairs, and raise young. By combining movement data with long-term records of survival and breeding success, we can better understand how this recovering raptor population is developing. Our key research themes include:

• Understanding movement ecology: using GPS tracking to map how eagles disperse, settle, and use different habitats across Ireland.
• Linking behaviour to survival: investigating how movement patterns influence survival rates and breeding success.
• Assessing population recovery: integrating tracking and demographic data to evaluate long-term population viability.

By uncovering how White-tailed Eagles are using the Irish landscape, this work will help guide future conservation strategies and support the continued recovery of this once-lost species. 

Fig 1. (Left) A dispersal trip performed by "Aspen", a juvenile White-tailed Eagle fledged from Glengarriff Nature Reserve (yellow star) in 2025. In this trip, she travelled over 2,000 km in just 48 days (22 March - 9 May 2026) and passed through 26 counties. (Top Right) A juvenile White-tailed Eagle being released (photo: Valerie O'Sullivan). (Bottom Right) White-tailed Eagle nest containing three chicks (photo: Damian Clarke).