White-Tailed Sea-Eagle
Haliaeetus albicilla
Overview
This eagle has a large pale-yellow hooked beak, brown body plumage and a distinctive white tail. Juveniles are darker and lack the white tail, gaining their adult plumage by around 5 years of age.
White-tailed sea-eagles have a wingspan of 1.7m to 2.5m and a body length of 66cm to 94cm. Females are 10 to 20% larger than males. Males weigh between 3.1kg and 5.4kg, females are heavier and weigh between 4kg and 6.9kg.
- Found in
- Temperate and boreal Eurasia
- Class
- Aves
- Order
- Accipitriformes
- Family
- Accipitridae
- Genus
- Haliaeetus
Conservation Status
After facing significant conservation struggles over the past two centuries, white-tailed sea-eagles today are of Least Concern. Once widespread across Eurasia, the species experienced dramatic population declines in the 19th and 20th centuries, driven by illegal shooting, egg collection, and the widespread use of toxic pesticides. By the 1970s, white-tailed eagles had become extinct in several countries, including the UK and parts of central Europe. During recovery, they faced threats like secondary poisoning from rodenticides or lead, nest-site disturbance, and wind turbine collisions.
The recovery of white-tailed sea-eagles is one of the most successful raptor conservation stories in Europe. Beginning in the 1970s, reintroduction programs spearheaded population restorations in countries where eagles had become extinct. They involved translocations from healthy populations, nesting site protections, and public education. International protection agreements, the ban of toxic pesticides, and habitat restoration improved breeding successes.
White-tailed sea-eagles have successfully re-established breeding populations in several countries, including over 130 pairs in Scotland and a growing number in southern England.
- Wild Population
- 20,000 - 60,000
- Conservation Status
- Least concern
Animal Facts
- The white-tailed sea-eagle is Europe’s largest eagle.
- The nest (or ‘eyrie’) of a white-tailed sea eagle is returned to and built up more every year. It may reach sizes of 2m wide and 3.7m high.
- In Norse mythology, the eagle perched at the top of the world tree Yggdrasil is believed to be a white-tailed sea-eagle.
- The eyesight of the white-tailed sea eagle is thought to be 8 times better than that of humans.
- While living close to water and being apt predators of fish, other birds actually make up the largest part of the white-tailed sea-eagle’s diet.
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Social & Reproduction
The white-tailed sea-eagle mates for life in early adulthood and then lives in a pair bond with its partner. They will raise chicks together annually but otherwise do not spend time with other eagles.
White-tailed sea-eagles form strong, lifelong monogamous pair bonds. Young eagles seek a mate upon reaching maturity, engaging in soaring displays and vocalisations to attract a partner. Bonds are affirmed in spectacular aerial courtship displays and calling together. In the mating season (January to July in the South, and April to September in the North of their range), the pair constructs a large cup nest from sticks and soft vegetation in a tree or on a cliff near water, or returns to and refurbishes the previous year’s nest.
The female lays 1 to 3 eggs and does most of the incubation over the next 38 days, while the male primarily supplies her with food, though they may take turns incubating, too. Upon hatching, both parents will gather food to feed the chicks. The young eagles fledge at 10 to 12 weeks old, but rely on their parents for several more weeks as they learn to hunt and navigate their environment.
At about 5 to 6 months old, the juveniles disperse widely from their natal territory, developing their survival skills and transitioning to their adult plumage, including the iconic white tail. Sexual maturity is reached at 4 to 6 years old, at which point the young eagles seek to establish a pair bond and territory of their own.