White-tailed Eagle: Profile and Information

White-tailed eagles are among the most massive living birds of prey. It is also known as the 4th largest eagle in the world.

White-tailed eagles usually live near large open waters, requiring abundant food and using old trees and ample sea cliffs for refuge.

The Bald eagle, which inhabits a similar niche in North America, is considered a close cousin to the white-tailed eagle.

The adult white-tailed eagle is usually greyish medium-brown in color. It has a clear, pale look on the head, neck, and top of the breast, which is most frequently a buffy color compared to the rest of the plumage in adults.

The overall brownish color of the adult stands out compared to the slightly wedged whitetail.

All bare parts of their body, including bills, cere, feet, and eyes, are yellow on adults.

Scientific Classification

Distribution

White-tailed eagles are typically distributed in Northern Europe and Northern Asia. They breed in Hokkaido, Japan, and as far west as Greenland and Iceland. These birds reside in many habitats but are generally closely connected to water.

Many white-tailed eagles are often spotted in low coastlines, estuaries, and coastal marshlands, particularly during winter.

Birds generally need remote forests, groups of matured and tall trees, and access to freshwater wetlands, such as lakes, river systems, ponds, or wide, low-range farmlands.

Habitat and Lifestyle

White-tailed eagles are diurnal and spend most of their day on trees or rocks. Couples stay on a rock, tree, crevices, overcrowded ledges, or small isolated trees, sometimes near the nest jointly regularly.

Although the white-tailed eagles are relatively sociable raptors, they are territorial, and occasional intrusion causes emotional conflict where one may die.

White-tailed eagle is known as partial migrants. They barely migrate to the west of their territories, and during winter, white-tailed eagles that breed as far north as Greenland, Iceland, and coastal Norway do not migrate.

Migrating white-tailed eagles, particularly younger birds, become sociable during winter.

Many groups can consist of up to 10 birds and at least 30 – 40 individual birds in areas close to large breeding communities.

White-tailed eagles tend to apprehend their prey from perches using the “seat and wait” technique, usually from prominent tree perch. They are also classified as strong predators.

The fish are generally captured in a shallow dive, usually with the eagle’s feet wet alone after a short trip from a perch.

They sometimes fish from beaches or gravel islands by diving into the shallow rivers or lakes. White-tailed eagles fly low on the seashore or lake, trying to ambush their target regarding non-fish prey.

During the breeding season, white-tailed eagles become very vocal. The male makes a kick-krick-krick or gri-gri-gri sound, while the female makes a krau-krau-krau or gra-gra-gra sound.

The pairs also duet in a flight or from a perch in the early spring. Alarm calls are typically 3-4 brief, noisy, or klek sounds.

Diets

They are carnivores and also scavengers. Their diet primarily consists of birds and fish, but it also consists of small mammals. Carrion is often their crucial food source during the winter months.

Reproduction

White-tailed eagles are lifelong pairs and monogamous. The breeding season occurs in its southern range from January to July and in its northern region from April to September.

Pairs also participate in soaring, sky-dancing, and other aerial performances in early spring, all with a loud call, with stunning cartwheels down and claws touching.

White-tailed eagles typically breed in large trees and nest in high bifurcation, on the canopy, or in a broad lateral branch.

Typically, nests are wide and made of sticks and branches, averaging about 1 m in length and up to 2 m deep, with moss, greenery, algae, and wool, all lined in various ways for construction.

The female lays two large oval-shaped and dull white-colored eggs, which she incubates for 38 – 42 days.

The hatchling has a creamy white body, and their wings and rumps are greyish. They are likely to travel around the nest 10 days after hatching, and they begin to growl after 80 days.

They become self-sufficient 1 or 2 months later, and between 5 and 6 years, they reach reproductive maturity.

Threat

Human activities primarily threaten White-tailed eagles for many years. These include habitat changes and wetland degradation.

It also consists of a hundred years of systemic persecution of humans and accidental poisonings, as well as nesting failure epidemics due to several human-made chemicals that have continued to be a potential problem for eagles since 1950.

As a result, white-tailed eagles in many countries were deemed endangered or extinct.

These birds are unlawfully persecuted by game-bird shooting and egg theft, habitat loss, erosion, environmental degradation, accidental poisoning, and a collision with generation-wind and wind turbines.

Population

Following the IUCN Red List, the white-tailed eagle population is approximately 20,000 – 49,999 mature individuals.

The breeding population comprises 9,000 – 12,300 breeding pairs in Europe, correlating to 17,900 – 24,500 mature individuals.

This species is categorized as Least Concern (LC) on the IUCN Red List, and its numbers are still rising.

Fun facts

• The Anglo-Saxon name” erne” for the White-tailed eagle signifies “soarer.” This bird also has many Gaelic names, such as iolarsùil na grèine or “eagle of the sun’s eye.
• White-tailed eagles frequently pirate food from otters and other birds, including gulls, cormorants, corvids, ospreys, and several other raptors.
• In the Shetland Isles, Scotland, fishers assumed that once a sea eagle emerged, fish would climb to the surface, belly up; this resulted in a handful of anglers using eagle fat, smeared on their bait, to bolster their catch.
• Couples of White-tailed eagles usually construct many nests within their home range and use them randomly throughout the years.
• The White-tailed eagle is Germany’s national bird.