Bald eagle
By the 1950s, only 412 nesting pairs of bald eagles remained across the 48 contiguous states of the United States. In the early 18th century, the population is estimated to have stood between 300,000 and 500,000. The bald eagle, Haliaeetus leucocephalus, is a bird of prey native to North America, and its fall from those numbers was steep. As of 2018, it nests again in every continental state and province of the United States and Canada.
That reversal is only one thread in the story. Why is a bird with a gleaming white head of feathers called bald? How does a hunter of fish make a living beside busy cities? What does it take to build a home that a family can use for years? What pushed the species so low, and what lifted it back up? And what does this bird mean to the people who claim it as a symbol, whether sacred or national?
Carl Linnaeus described the species in his 18th-century work Systema Naturae, naming it Falco leucocephalus. Naturalists later placed it in the genus Haliaeetus, the sea eagles. The species name joins Greek words for white and head. The English word bald comes from an older usage meaning "white-headed", not hairless. The pale head simply stands out against the darker body.
The white-tailed eagle, Haliaeetus albicilla, is the bald eagle's counterpart in Eurasia. It has a tan head, somewhat paler brown body plumage and roughly the same size, and it fills the same ecological niche. The pair split from other sea eagles at the beginning of the Early Miocene, about 10 million years ago at the latest. The split may be as old as 28 million years, if the most ancient fossil is correctly assigned to this genus.
An adult bald eagle is dark brown with a white head and tail, and its beak, feet and irises are bright yellow. Males and females look alike, but females are about 25% larger. Females average as much as 5.6 kg, against 4.1 kg for males. Typical wingspan runs from 1.8 to 2.3 m, and body length from 70 to 102 cm. The legs carry no feathers. The toes are short and powerful, with large talons. The talon on the hind toe pierces the vital areas of prey while the front toes hold it still.
In South Carolina, bald eagles average 3.27 kg, with a wingspan of 1.88 m. Size grows with distance from the equator, a pattern known as Bergmann's rule. In Alaska, large females can weigh more than 7 kg and span 2.44 m across the wings. One outsized Alaskan female weighed 7.4 kg. A record from 1876 in Wyoming County, New York, describes an adult shot there that reportedly scaled 8.2 kg. Even the bill varies. Alaskan eagles can have up to twice the bill length of birds from Georgia, Louisiana and Florida. The mean culmen length is 6.83 cm in Alaska and 4.12 cm in the southern states.
Two subspecies have historically been recognized, though they may be a single species with size differences. The nominate southern form, H. l. leucocephalus, was described in 1766 and lives in the southern United States and the Baja California peninsula. The larger northern form, H. l. washingtoniensis, was described by Audubon in 1827. It lives in the northern United States, Canada and Alaska.
Until about the fifth year, an immature bald eagle is dark brown overlaid with messy white streaking. The golden eagle is the only other very large, non-vulturine raptor in North America, and the two can be told apart. The young bald eagle has a larger, more protruding head and beak, straighter wings held flat, and a stiffer wing beat. Its feathers do not completely cover the legs.
The call is a modest sound. It is a run of weak, staccato, chirping whistles, written as kleek kik ik ik ik, with a cadence somewhat like a gull's. Young birds sound harsher and shriller than adults. Film and television often skip the real sound entirely, substituting the louder and more powerful call of the red-tailed hawk.
From November until February, one to two thousand bald eagles winter in Squamish, British Columbia, about halfway between Vancouver and Whistler. They gather along the Squamish and Cheakamus Rivers, drawn by spawning salmon. Similar winter gatherings form at open lakes and rivers in the northern United States, wherever fish are easy to hunt or scavenge.
The natural range covers most of Canada, all of the continental United States and northern Mexico. The bald eagle is the only sea eagle endemic to North America. It occupies habitats from the bayous of Louisiana to the Sonoran Desert and the eastern deciduous forests of Quebec and New England. Northern birds migrate, while southern birds stay on their breeding territory all year. At its lowest point, in the 1950s, the range had shrunk largely to Alaska, the Aleutian Islands, northern and eastern Canada, and Florida.
A breeding bald eagle wants large open water full of fish, and studies show a preference for waters with a circumference greater than 11 km. Lakes larger than 10 km2 are optimal. Tall trees matter just as much. Nesting trees must be over 20 m tall, with good visibility, an open structure and prey nearby. The species of tree matters less than its height and position, and canopy cover should fall between 20% and 60%.
Nest height depends on the setting. In a mangrove swamp with standing water, a nest can sit as low as 6 m above the ground. On dry ground, nests range from 16 to 38 m up. In Southeast Alaska, Sitka spruce supplied 78% of the nesting trees, and hemlocks supplied 20%. In Wyoming, groves of mature cottonwoods or tall pines along streams are typical. Most nests lie within 200 m of open water, although one in Florida stood over 3 km away.
Nesting eagles are usually sensitive to people. They choose sites more than 1.2 km from low-density disturbance and more than 1.8 km from medium- or high-density disturbance. Exceptions are striking. Eagles have nested on Hardtack Island on the Willamette River in Portland, Oregon, and at the John Heinz National Wildlife Refuge at Tinicum in Philadelphia. A family moved to the Harlem neighborhood of New York City in 2010. In March 2024, bald eagles nested in Toronto for the first time.
On the 11th of January 1973, a juvenile was shot illegally in County Fermanagh, Ireland, and at first was misidentified as a white-tailed eagle. An exhausted juvenile was captured near Castleisland in County Kerry on the 15th of November 1987. A third record comes from Llyn Coron on Anglesey, in the United Kingdom, on the 17th of October 1978. The origin of that Anglesey bird is still disputed.
A bald eagle in a dive reaches between 120 and 160 km/h, though it seldom dives vertically. Gliding and flapping, it travels at 56-70 km/h, and about 48 km/h while carrying a fish. Despite being less adapted to fast flight than the golden eagle, it is surprisingly maneuverable. Bald eagles have been recorded catching geese in flight, swooping under them, turning over and thrusting talons into the breast. Migration generally takes place between 8:00 a.m. and 6:00 p.m., when the sun produces rising thermals.
Across 20 food studies, fish made up 56% of the diet of nesting eagles, birds 28%, mammals 14% and other prey 2%. More than 400 species are known in the prey list, far more than for the white-tailed eagle. To take a fish, the eagle swoops over the water and snatches it with its talons. Spicules on the toes help it grip, an adaptation ospreys share. Its grip is estimated to be ten times stronger than a human's. Eagles can fly with a fish equal to their own weight, but a heavier one may drag them into the water. Some eagles drown or die of hypothermia.
In the Columbia River Estuary in Oregon, eagles relied on fish for 90% of their intake. Of the fish observed there, 58% were caught alive, 24% were scavenged and 18% were pirated from other animals. That last habit has a name, kleptoparasitism. Bald eagles have stolen fish from ospreys, herons and even otters. They also pirate birds from peregrine falcons, prairie dogs from ferruginous hawks, and even jackrabbits from golden eagles. Healthy adults are not preyed upon in the wild, so they count as apex predators.
In the Pacific Northwest, spawning salmon and trout feed eagles from late summer through fall. Chinook salmon, with adults of 12 to 18 kg, are probably taken only as carrion, and a single carcass can attract several eagles. Eagles in Washington need 489 g of fish each day to survive. When food is plentiful, an eagle can gorge, storing up to 1 kg in a throat pouch called a crop. That store lets the bird fast for several days.
Birds are the most diverse group on the menu, with 200 prey species recorded. Medium-sized birds such as western grebes, mallards and American coots are preferred, because they are easy to catch and carry. On parts of the North Pacific coast, eagles once preyed mainly on kelp-dwelling fish and sea otter pups. Both have declined steeply, so the eagles now hit seabird colonies instead. Some biologists fear murres are heading for a "conservation collision". The great blue heron's only serious enemy, at every age, is the bald eagle.
Mammals matter less, but not everywhere. At Seedskadee National Wildlife Refuge, eagles hunt in pairs to catch cottontails, jackrabbits and prairie dogs. One eagle was seen carrying a 6.8 kg mule deer fawn. In one case, a bald eagle killed an adult pregnant ewe, which weighs over 60 kg on average. At least three other eagles joined the meal. In coastal New Jersey, 14 of 20 studied nests held turtle remains. Immature eagles often live on carrion, and the species will scavenge carcasses as large as whales.
In 1963, a nest in Florida was measured at 2.9 m across and 6.1 m deep, and it weighed three short tons. It is on record as the largest tree nest ever recorded for any animal. Typical large nests are smaller, reaching about 4 m deep, 2.5 m across and one tonne. They are built of branches and used for many years, with new material added each year. Most nests last under five years, because storms collapse them or their weight breaks the supporting branches. One Midwest nest was occupied for at least 34 years.
On Amchitka Island in Alaska, where terrestrial predators are scarce, eagles nest on the ground. In Sonora, Mexico, they have been seen nesting on top of hecho cactuses. Cliff and pinnacle nests were once reported in several western states, but are now verified only in Alaska and Arizona.
Bald eagles generally mate for life. If one partner dies or disappears, the survivor picks a new mate, and a pair that fails repeatedly may split. Adults often return to the area where they were born. Courtship brings calls and flight displays from the male, including cartwheels in which two birds fly high, lock talons and free-fall. They separate just before hitting the ground. A mature pair defends 1 to 2 km of waterside habitat.
By mid-February, nest building or repair is often under way, and eggs are laid in late February, sometimes in deep snow. That is earlier than most raptors, which nest in April or May. Eggs hatch from mid-April to early May, and the young fledge from late June to early July. Eagles lay between one and three eggs a year, and two is typical. The eggs average about 73 mm long. Alaskan eggs average 130 g, while Saskatchewan eggs average 114.4 g. Both parents take turns incubating, though the female does most of the sitting.
The oldest chick usually has the advantage of a larger size and louder voice, which draws the parents' attention. Sometimes the oldest sibling attacks and kills a younger one, especially early on. Even so, nearly half of known bald eagle pairs raise two fledglings, which is a better record than in some Aquila eagles. In 2024, the Eagle Cam at the National Conservation Training Center in West Virginia recorded a father killing and eating two chicks after the mother left the nest. The center noted that such behavior "has been observed in other nests and is not uncommon in birds of prey."
A young eaglet can gain up to 170 g a day, the fastest growth rate of any North American bird. Eaglets play tug of war with sticks and practice gripping with their talons. By eight weeks, they can flap and lift off the nest platform. They fledge at anywhere from 8 to 14 weeks, then stay near the nest for six more weeks. In 2017, a pair at the Shoal Harbor Migratory Bird Sanctuary near Sidney, British Columbia, accepted a juvenile red-tailed hawk into the nest beside their own three nestlings. Biologists nicknamed it "Spunky", and it fledged successfully. For the next four years, young eagles wander widely in search of food.
In Utah, a single bald eagle once displaced two golden eagles in a row from a kill. The two species are roughly equal in size, aggressiveness and strength, so neither dominates. Bald eagles are thought to number at least 150,000, about twice as many as golden eagles in North America. They often outnumber goldens at food sources. In New Jersey one winter, a golden eagle and numerous bald eagles hunted snow geese side by side without conflict.
Against other scavengers, bald eagles usually win. They displace coyotes, foxes, corvids, gulls and vultures. In Maine, coyotes, bobcats and domestic dogs have occasionally driven off less confident immature eagles. The common loon is a more unusual enemy. It stabs at intruders with a knife-like bill, and a bald eagle in Maine apparently died of a puncture wound after attacking a loon nest. At its own nest, an eagle has even knocked a black bear out of a tree.
The average lifespan in the wild is around 20 years, and the oldest confirmed eagle reached 38. A captive bird in New York lived nearly 50 years. In a Florida study, adults showed a 100% annual survival rate. In Prince William Sound, Alaska, adults had an 88% annual survival rate, even after the Exxon Valdez oil spill of 1989. The spill killed an estimated 247 eagles, yet the local population returned to its pre-spill level by 1995.
Of 1,428 eagles examined by the National Wildlife Health Center from 1963 to 1984-23% died from trauma, mainly collisions with wires and vehicles. Gunshot killed 22%, poisoning 11% and electrocution 9%. Overall, 68% of deaths were human-caused. Young birds face other risks. Around 50% of eagles survive their first year, and nestlings fall to collapsing nests, starvation, sibling aggression and weather. Predators of eggs and nestlings include large gulls, ravens, crows, bobcats, raccoons and black bears.
A study published in 2022 in the journal Science found that more than half of adult eagles across 38 U.S. states suffered from lead poisoning. The cause is usually scavenging carcasses tainted by lead pellets, rifle rounds or fishing tackle. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service examined 1,490 eagle deaths in Michigan from 1986 through 2017. Cars killed 532 of them, or 36%, while the birds scavenged roadkill. Lead poisoning killed 176, or 12%. Both shares rose significantly toward the end of that study.
In 1930, a New York City ornithologist wrote that about 70,000 bald eagles had been shot in the territory of Alaska over the previous 12 years. Many hunters acted on long-held beliefs that eagles carried off lambs and even children. Lamb predation is rare, and predation on humans is thought to be non-existent. In 1978, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service called illegal shooting "the leading cause of direct mortality in both adult and immature bald eagles".
The pesticide DDT struck from a different direction. Eagles suffered from biomagnification, in which the poison builds up as it moves up the food chain. DDT did not kill adults outright. It disrupted their calcium metabolism, leaving them sterile or unable to lay healthy eggs. Many eggs were too brittle to bear the weight of a brooding adult, so they almost never hatched.
Protection came in layers. The 1918 Migratory Bird Treaty first protected the species in the United States and Canada, and it was later extended to all of North America. The Bald and Golden Eagle Protection Act, approved by Congress in 1940, banned commercial trapping, killing and egg collecting. The bald eagle was declared endangered in 1967. Amendments to the 1940 act between 1962 and 1972 limited commercial uses and raised penalties. DDT was banned in the United States in 1972. Canada banned it completely in 1989, after severe restrictions from the late 1970s.
The population rebounded. It stood near 100,000 in the early 1980s and reached 110,000-115,000 by 1992. Alaska held about 40,000-50,000 of them, and British Columbia 20,000-30,000. In 2006, the states reported 9,789 breeding pairs. Florida held on with over a thousand pairs through the worst years. Minnesota now leads the contiguous states with an estimated 1,312 pairs, ahead of Florida's 1,166. In Washington State, occupied nests rose from 105 in 1980 to 840 by 2005, about 30 more per year. Further growth there may depend on late-winter food, particularly salmon.
On the 12th of July 1995, the bird was reclassified from endangered to threatened. A proposal to remove it from the list in the lower 48 states began on the 6th of July 1999. It was delisted on the 28th of June 2007, and the IUCN rates it as least concern. In some areas, the rise in eagles has meant fewer of other bird species, and the eagles may be considered a pest.
Permits are required to keep a bald eagle in captivity in the United States, and they mostly go to public educational institutions. The eagles on show are permanently injured birds that cannot be released. The species lives long in captivity but does not breed well, even in the best conditions. In Canada and England, a license is needed to keep bald eagles for falconry.
In December 2016, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service proposed letting wind energy companies kill up to 4,200 bald eagles a year without penalty, four times the previous number. The proposed permits would last 30 years instead of five.
Among the Lakota, an eagle feather is a mark of honor given to a person who achieves a task, and today it may mark a college graduation. The Pawnee see eagles as symbols of fertility, because their nests sit high and they fiercely protect their young. The Choctaw regard the bald eagle as a symbol of peace, since it has direct contact with the sun in the upper world. In the Navajo tradition, a feather is a protector, and medicine men make ceremonial whistles from the leg and wing bones.
During the Sun Dance, practiced by many Plains Indian tribes, the eagle appears in several forms. The fork of the lodge represents the nest, and a whistle of wing bone is played. A medicine man may direct a fan of eagle feathers toward people who seek healing. He touches it to the center pole, then to the patient, to pass power along. The fan is then raised so that the eagle may carry the prayers to the Creator.
Only people of certifiable Native American ancestry, enrolled in a federally recognized tribe, may legally obtain or possess bald or golden eagle feathers for religious use. Native American groups have questioned the constitutionality of these laws under the First Amendment. The National Eagle Repository, a division of the Fish and Wildlife Service, receives dead eagles and distributes their parts and feathers to federally recognized tribes for ceremonies.
On the 20th of June 1782, the Continental Congress adopted the design for the Great Seal of the United States. It shows a bald eagle gripping 13 arrows and an olive branch with 13 leaves. The founders liked to compare their young republic to the Roman Republic, where eagle imagery was prominent. The eagle also appears on the presidential seal and presidential flag. From 1916 to 1945, the flag showed the eagle facing left. That gave rise to an urban legend that the eagle turns toward the arrows in wartime and toward the olive branch in peace.
Benjamin Franklin is often said to have favored the wild turkey, but there is no evidence he ever did so publicly. In a letter to his daughter in 1784, written in Paris, he did voice distaste for the eagle: "For my own part. I wish the bald eagle had not been chosen the representative of our country. He is a bird of bad moral character. He does not get his living honestly... besides he is a rank coward: The little king bird not bigger than a sparrow attacks him boldly and drives him out of the district." The letter criticized the Society of the Cincinnati, whose hereditary membership Franklin saw as a noble order unwelcome in the new republic. Readers interpret the two birds as a satirical comparison between that Society and Cincinnatus, its namesake.
The bird had long been called the national bird, but only unofficially. That changed in 2024, when an act of Congress designated it as such.
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Common questions
Why is the bald eagle called bald when it has feathers?
The word bald in the bald eagle's name comes from an older usage meaning "white-headed", not hairless. It refers to the white head feathers contrasting with the darker brown body.
How big is a bald eagle and how large is its nest?
A bald eagle has a body length of 70-102 cm, a wingspan of 1.8-2.3 m and a typical mass of 3-6.3 kg, with females about 25% larger than males. Its nest is the largest of any North American bird and can reach 4 m deep, 2.5 m across and one tonne.
What does the bald eagle eat?
The bald eagle eats mainly fish, which made up 56% of the diet of nesting eagles across 20 studies. It also takes birds, mammals and carrion, and steals prey from other predators such as ospreys.
Why did bald eagle numbers fall in the 20th century?
Bald eagle numbers fell because of the pesticide DDT, habitat loss and shooting. DDT disrupted calcium metabolism and made eggs too brittle to hatch, and by the 1950s only 412 nesting pairs remained in the contiguous states.
When was the bald eagle removed from the endangered species list?
The bald eagle was reclassified from endangered to threatened on the 12th of July 1995. It was delisted on the 28th of June 2007, and DDT had been banned in the United States in 1972.
Why is the bald eagle the national symbol of the United States?
The bald eagle was adopted as a national emblem in 1782, when the Continental Congress approved the Great Seal design on the 20th of June 1782. An act of Congress in 2024 officially designated it the national bird.
What does the bald eagle mean in Native American cultures?
The bald eagle is a sacred bird in some North American cultures, and its feathers are central to many religious customs. The Lakota give an eagle feather as a mark of honor, the Pawnee see eagles as symbols of fertility, and the Choctaw see them as symbols of peace.
All sources
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- 122'Wings of America' Birds of Prey ShowAmerican Eagle Foundation — January 12, 2018
- 123Bald eagle's new status as the official US bird brings pride and hope to many Native AmericansGiovanna Dell'Orto — 2025-07-13
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- 145Status of the bald eagle in the lower 48 states and the District of Columbia: 1963–2007Suckling, K. et al. — Center for Biological Diversity — September 21, 2007
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- 151Bald Eagle, Haliaeetus leucocephalusCornell Lab of Ornithology
- 152Habits and Habitats of Bald EaglesDrexel University
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- 155The Bald Eagle in FloridaFlorida Power & Light Company
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