50 Fun Facts About Bald Eagle

Why is the bald eagle called 'bald'?

The species name leucocephalus says the same thing in Greek: 'white head'.

The bald eagle belongs to which genus?

The genus name is Greek for 'sea eagle'; its Old World counterpart has a tan head instead of a white one.

What does the bald eagle mainly eat?

Across 20 diet studies fish made up 56%, birds 28% and mammals 14%; more than 400 prey species are on the list.

Which sex of bald eagle is larger?

Plumage is identical, so size is the only clue; the biggest Alaskan hens top 7 kg with a 2.4-metre wingspan.

The bald eagle builds the largest tree nest of any animal; one Florida nest weighed how much?

It was 6.1 metres deep and 2.9 across; nests are reused and topped up every year until the branches give way.

At what age does a bald eagle reach sexual maturity and full white-headed plumage?

Until then it is streaky brown and easily confused with a golden eagle.

The bald eagle was removed from the US endangered and threatened species list in which year?

It had gone from 'endangered' to 'threatened' in 1995 after DDT was banned and hunting outlawed.

Under what name did Linnaeus originally describe the bald eagle?

Eighteenth-century taxonomy lumped most raptors into Falco; the sea-eagle genus came later.

Which Eurasian bird forms a 'species pair' with the bald eagle, filling the same niche across the ocean?

One is white-headed, the other tan-headed, and they split from other sea eagles at least 10 million years ago.

How many subspecies of bald eagle are recognised?

The northern one is larger, which may simply be Bergmann's rule at work: bigger bodies further from the equator.

Which is the only raptor-like bird in North America larger than the bald eagle?

The golden eagle is only about 455 g lighter on average and actually has a longer wing chord.

A typical bald eagle wingspan is roughly what?

Body length runs 70 to 102 cm and weight 3 to 6.3 kg; a New York bird shot in 1876 supposedly weighed 8.2 kg.

Where do the largest bald eagles live?

Bergmann's rule again: South Carolina birds average 3.27 kg, while some Alaskan hens pass 7 kg.

How is the bald eagle's actual call best described?

It sounds a bit like a gull; the ferocious scream you hear on television usually belongs to a hawk.

Which bird's call is usually dubbed over the bald eagle's in films and TV?

The hawk's cry is far louder and more powerful than the eagle's real chirping whistle.

Bald eagles were found nesting for the first time in which Canadian city in March 2024?

By 2018 the species was nesting in every continental US state and Canadian province.

At its low point in the 1950s, how many nesting pairs remained in the 48 contiguous states?

The early 18th-century population had been 300,000 to 500,000; by 2006 the states reported nearly 9,800 pairs.

As of 2007, which contiguous state had the most breeding pairs of bald eagles?

Its estimated 1,312 pairs edged out Florida's 1,166.

What is the bald eagle's dive speed?

It rarely dives vertically; cruising speed is 56 to 70 km/h, dropping to about 48 km/h with a fish in its talons.

Structures on a bald eagle's toes that help it grip slippery fish are called what?

Its grip is estimated at ten times the strength of a human hand.

A bald eagle's grip is estimated to be how much stronger than a human's?

The big hind talon pierces vital organs while the front toes hold the prey still.

The habit of stealing prey from other predators, common in bald eagles, is called what?

Ospreys are frequent victims; the eagle also happily scavenges carcasses up to the size of whales.

What happens if a bald eagle grabs a fish too heavy to lift?

Eagles can swim, and often paddle or drag big salmon ashore with their talons before eating.

Bald eagles can store food in a throat pouch called what?

It can hold about a kilogram, useful when a carcass turns up and the next meal is uncertain.

Bald eagle courtship includes 'cartwheels', in which the pair do what?

They separate just before hitting the ground; pairs generally stay together for life.

How many eggs does a bald eagle typically lay?

One to three is the normal range; nearly half of pairs manage to raise two fledglings, unusually good for a large eagle.

Compared with most raptors, bald eagles breed when?

Nest-building starts by mid-February and eggs may be laid in deep snow in the north.

A young eaglet can gain up to how much weight a day, the fastest growth of any North American bird?

By eight weeks the chicks can lift off the nest platform; they fledge at 8 to 14 weeks.

Bald eagles have been recorded nesting on the ground on which treeless Alaskan island?

In Sonora, Mexico, they have even nested on top of hecho cactuses.

What is the average lifespan of a wild bald eagle?

The oldest confirmed wild bird reached 38.

A 1930 report estimated how many bald eagles had been shot in one northern US territory over 12 years?

A bounty system encouraged it; today the main lead-poisoning risk comes from scavenging hunter-shot carcasses.

Which 1940 law banned trapping and killing America's two big raptors and collecting their eggs?

Amendments between 1962 and 1972 tightened it further and raised the penalties.

The bald eagle was adopted as a US national emblem in which year?

On 20 June that year the Continental Congress approved the Great Seal design.

On the Great Seal of the United States, the eagle grasps 13 arrows and what?

War in one talon and peace in the other, one for each of the original states.

An act of Congress officially designated the bald eagle the national bird in which year?

It had been considered the national bird for two centuries, but only unofficially.

Is there evidence Franklin publicly backed the turkey over the bald eagle as national symbol?

The legend grows from a private 1784 letter to his daughter mocking a veterans' society.

In his 1784 letter, Franklin called the bald eagle a bird of what?

He complained it stole fish from the 'fishing hawk' and was chased off by the tiny kingbird, 'a rank coward'.

Franklin's eagle letter was really a satire aimed at which organisation?

He objected to its hereditary membership as a noble order out of place in a republic named for Cincinnatus.

Under US eagle feather law, who may legally possess bald eagle feathers for religious use?

The National Eagle Repository collects dead eagles and distributes feathers and parts to tribes for ceremonies.

What is the National Eagle Repository's job?

It is a division of the US Fish and Wildlife Service and supplies feathers for religious ceremonies.

Which people give an eagle feather as a symbol of honour to someone who achieves a task?

In Navajo tradition the feather is a protector, and medicine men make ceremonial whistles from eagle leg and wing bones.

Which raptor from another continent most resembles America's national bird?

It differs in having a white chest and a black-tipped bill, and lives far outside the bald eagle's range.

Bald eagles have been recorded attacking which large waterfowl in mid-air?

They swoop under the goose, flip over and drive their talons into its breast.

A 2013 proposal would let wind-energy companies kill how many bald eagles a year without penalty?

That was four times the previous limit, on permits lasting 30 years instead of five.

The bald eagle has turned up as a vagrant across the Atlantic twice, in which country?

A juvenile was shot in County Fermanagh in 1973 and an exhausted one caught in County Kerry in 1987.

In which year was DDT banned in the United States, the step seen as most significant for the eagle's recovery?

The pesticide thinned eggshells and inhibited reproduction; Canada did not ban it completely until 1989.

A study of 1,490 bald eagle deaths in Michigan found the leading cause, at 36 percent, was what?

Lead poisoning from ammo and fishing gear in carrion was second at 12 percent, and both causes rose towards the end of the 1986-2017 study.

Which town between Vancouver and Whistler hosts one to two thousand wintering bald eagles each year?

The birds gather along the Squamish and Cheakamus Rivers for the salmon spawning runs from November to February.

Immature bald eagles are most easily confused with which other very large North American raptor?

Golden eagles show a warmer brown plumage with a reddish-golden nape, while young bald eagles have a bigger head and beak.

Roughly how large was the total bald eagle population estimated to be in the early 1980s?

It had grown to 110,000-115,000 by 1992 as the DDT ban and hunting protections took effect.