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Bald Eagle

Haliaeetus leucocephalus

Description:

The adult bald eagle is large bird of prey with a white head and tail and dark brown body. Feet and strongly-hooked beak are yellow. Immature bald eagles are brown with irregular white splotching under the wings and on the breast (third photo). Feet and beak of immature are brown. The adult plumage starts to appear in the fourth year. Females are larger than males.

Habitat:

Usually found along large water features, where they feed on fish. They will, however, venture into upland areas to hunt rabbits and other prey.

Notes:

Bald eagles congregate around open patches of water along the Mississippi River during the winter. Right now (winter of 2012/2013) they are congregating at Red Wing, Minnesota. There were about 100 birds at this spot yesterday. Unfortunately, the day was overcast and cloudy and it was hard to get good shots of the birds as they fished the open water and harassed the coots and mergansers. In late afternoon the sun briefly appeared, but by that time the birds were starting to leave the river and seek out night time roosting spots in the nearby hills and valleys. The last photo shows two eagles fighting over a fish (a gizzard shad) that one of them has plucked from the water's surface. A third eagle is streaking in to join in the fray. This is pretty typical eagle behavior; it's easier to snatch a fish away from another eagle than it is to catch one's own fish.

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8 Comments

Gordon Dietzman
Gordon Dietzman 11 years ago

Thanks for the kind comments everyone. Glad you enjoyed the photos.

ChristyHolland
ChristyHolland 11 years ago

Wonderful series, Gordon!

T. Kids
T. Kids 11 years ago

Bald Eagles are my favorite bird. Good job.

radiosputnik2010
radiosputnik2010 11 years ago

Always cool to see photos of eagles though. Keep the posts coming.

Gordon Dietzman
Gordon Dietzman 11 years ago

Hmmm... I'm contributing to both the Minnesota Wildlife (Plants) and the Minnesota Wildlife (Animals) missions and they are next to each other in my missions list; must have hit the wrong one. Thanks for letting me know.

radiosputnik2010
radiosputnik2010 11 years ago

Would you mind removing this eagle photo from the Minnesota Wildlife (Plants) mission? It's guidelines are -

Include as detailed of a description as possible. Any kind of plant is welcome, except trees. No domesticated plants please. I do not want plants from your garden or greenhouse, unless it something that you would normally see growing in the wild in Minnesota. Please no animals, trees, or fungi! (but see other related missions, if you have some that you want to share!)

So trees, eagles, ornamental roses, garden plants, mushrooms, fungi should not be in this mission.

Thanks

Maria dB
Maria dB 11 years ago

Beautiful series and great information!

Carol Milne
Carol Milne 11 years ago

Great series. Incredible! And thanks for the very good information.

Gordon Dietzman
Spotted by
Gordon Dietzman

County Line, Minnesota, USA

Spotted on Jan 19, 2013
Submitted on Jan 20, 2013

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Reference

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