Adult male and female bald eagles have the same appearance – dark brown bodies, pure white head and tail feathers, yellow beaks and eyes – though females are usually a bit larger. Young eagles have juvenile coloring for their first five years, starting with mostly brown feathers in the first year to brown and white mottled plumage through the fourth year.
* Bald eagles can be nearly 3 feet long and can have wingspans of up to 71/2 feet.
* Bald eagles feed primarily on fish, but also eat some mammals and waterfowl. They are skilled hunters, but actually prefer to steal prey from ospreys, hawks and falcons, a skill known as kleptoparasitism.
* Bald eagles build some of the largest nests in the world with some of them weighing more than 1,000 pounds.
* The bald eagle became the national bird of the United States in 1782. Over the years, however, bald eagle populations suffered because of hunting, a loss of habitat and the use of the pesticide DDT, which was banned in the United States in 1972. Since the ban of the pesticide as well as the introduction of conservation programs, eagle populations have rebounded, though the birds are still listed as “threatened” on the U.S. Endangered Species List.
Sources: National Geographic’s Complete Birds of North America and U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service
Talk to us
> Give us your news tips.
> Send us a letter to the editor.
> More Herald contact information.
