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Haliaeetus leucocephalus
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.
Usually found along large water features, where they feed on fish. They will, however, venture into upland areas to hunt rabbits and other prey.
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.
8 Comments
Thanks for the kind comments everyone. Glad you enjoyed the photos.
Wonderful series, Gordon!
Bald Eagles are my favorite bird. Good job.
Always cool to see photos of eagles though. Keep the posts coming.
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.
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
Beautiful series and great information!
Great series. Incredible! And thanks for the very good information.