This is the best time to see bald eagles.

Bald eagles tend to be more reclusive during their nesting season but they’re more visible as they get out and feed opportunistically in the winter, said Karen Steenhof, research wildlife biologist with the U.S. Geological Survey’s Snake River Field Station in Boise, Idaho.

That’s why many groups of biologists, with hundreds of volunteers, choose to count eagles in the winter. Forty-two states participate in Steenhof’s midwinter count, which began last week and continues through Jan. 16. Maine is not among the states that participate in the survey.

In Maine, the biggest bald eagle concentrations are Down East but the fastest growth is on the midcoast and in central Maine, said Charlie Todd of the Maine Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife. Numbers are accelerating in northern Maine as well, he said.