"'It's a jungle if you're an eagle right now on the Chesapeake Bay,' says Bryan Watts, a conservation biologist at the College of William and Mary in Williamsburg, Va. 'You have to watch your back.'"

"Americans have long imagined their national symbol as a solitary, noble bird soaring on majestic wings. The birds are indeed gorgeous and still soar, but the notion that they are loners is outdated, Watts and other conservationists are finding.

After nearly being wiped out, inadvertently, by strong insecticides that were in widespread use until the 1970s, bald eagles have come roaring back in places like the James River, south of Richmond, Va. Today the raptors fly around together above the James in big groups, hang out in communal roosts and are fiercely competitive."

Elizabeth Shogren reports for NPR's Morning Edition September 04, 2013. [2]