Whatbird.com

Bald Eagle

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Mitch Waite

Nce image. It would help id if you could include an immature bald eagle.

 

Graham

We are adding females and juveniles for all birds. Stay tuned and thanks for the comment, glad you like it.

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iBird Explorer: Finally a field guide as light as a feather. See it at http://www.ibird.com

Cool Facts

• Humans are the most important source of mortality for this threatened species.
• The Bald Eagle isn't bald. The use of "bald" in its name is actually a shortening of the word "piebald," which describes something that is spotted or patchy, especially in black and white. Because the Bald Eagle has a dark brown body and a white head and tail, piebald is an apt description.
• Bald Eagles occasionally hunt cooperatively, with one individual flushing prey towards another.
• The immature Bald Eagle has a prolonged period of exploration lasting for four years. Some young from Florida have wandered north to Michigan, and birds from California have reached Alaska.
  

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iBird Explorer: Finally a field guide as light as a feather. See it at http://www.ibird.com

Did you know that many small birds develop a symbiotic relationship with eagles and actually use the same nest?  Of course, the little birds are living on a lower floor in the nest.  The eagles' eating habits result in lots of small insects being attracted to the nest.  The little birds help with control of the insects and benefit from the protection of their much larger neighbor where predators are concerned.

 Also, since eagles normally use the same nest year after year, they can get very big.  This is because the adult pair is always adding new materials to the nest.  They do this in the fall, when they return to the nest to make essential repairs prior to winter.  They do this again in the spring when they are rebonding after a period apart, and in preparation for the new clutch to be laid.  As they will be adding new materials to the interior part of the nest to cover up the old dirty materials, they also add new edging materials which make the nest taller.  A nest can become so big, if built in a tree, that it can cause the tree to collapse.  The largest nest ever found was about 30 years old and weight about as much as a small car...about 1700 pounds.  

 

Mitchell Waite:

• Humans are the most important source of mortality for this threatened species

While the Bald Eagle was put on the endangered species list in the 1960s, it was never listed as such in Canada.  However, it was recently taken off the endangered list and put on the threatened species list.  It is still threatened because people will still kill them.  Just Thursday, a man on Vancouver Island shot two.  In the old days, man did not realized that the reason for fewer bald eagles was loss of habitat, as well as, human competition with eagles for food.  Then, in the early part of the 20th century, a bounty was placed on bald eagles, because fishermen saw them as a competition for fish.  Over 153,000 eagles were deliberately killed.  It is estimated that there were somewhere around 5 million eagles in North America before  European settlement.  At present there are approximately 700,000.  They made a dramatic rebound in the last 40 years.