Bald Eagle Haliaeetus leucocephalus. Adult. Black and white bird. Photograph taken by the author. Copyright © 2025 Now I Wonder. All rights reserved.

Complete Guide To The Bald Eagle

ByChristine Species Guides

Bald Eagle

Juvenile Bald Eagle Images

Adult Bald Eagle Images

How To Find and Identify Bald Eagles

  • Wingspan: 6 – 7.5 feet (1.8 – 2.3 m)
    • Females are slightly larger than males.
    • Bald Eagles are the biggest, baddest raptors in North Carolina’s sky, and one of the largest birds found in the state. Their maximum wing span is matched only by the Brown Pelican (Pelecanus occidentalis), whose habitat is restricted to the Atlantic Coast regions.
  • Adults:
    • Large, black-brown body and wing feathers.
    • Bright white head and neck feathers.
    • Bright white tail feathers.
    • Bright yellow beaks.
  • Juveniles:
    • Mottled black-brown and white feathers.
      • Lack the white head and tail feathers of adults; white feathers come in during molts as the juveniles age to sexual maturity.
    • Two-toned beaks; yellow by face, shades to dark brown towards hook.
  • Both juveniles and adults have:
    • Massive, heavy, hooked beaks
    • Bright orange feet tipped with long, thick, curved, black claws
    • Long wings
  • Look for Bald Eagles along lakes, rivers, and deep marshes and estuaries.
  • Build huge, messy stick nests on high trees.
    • Mated pairs re-use the same nests over many years, barring damage to the nests or supporting trees from disasters like building construction activity and hurricanes.

Behavior Notes: Bald Eagles

  • Bald Eagles are primarily fish eaters that hunt directly by swooping down on fish swimming near the surface of a lake or river and snatching the fish up with their long, sharp, curved talons.
    • The birds find their fish prey by sight; they either soar over the water surface or settle on high perches and scan the water with their phenomenal eyesight.
  • Bald Eagles compete directly with another fantastic, but much smaller, fish-eating North Carolina bird, the Osprey (Pandion haliaetus).
    • Unlike Ospreys, Bald Eagles rarely enter the water when hunting; they prefer to fly very close to the surface and simply snatch shallow-swimming fish.
    • Being much bigger and stronger, Bald Eagles often steal fish from Ospreys in areas where the two species co-exist.
  • Fish make up the majority of Bald Eagles’ diets but Bald Eagles also take other prey, especially when raising nestlings.
  • Common prey other than fish can include:
  • Home ranges and core use areas vary:
  • The Bald Eagle has been the United States of America’s National Symbol since 1782.
    • In December 2024, it became the USA’s National Bird.
  • Nearly driven into extinction thanks to pesticides and hunting, the Bald Eagle is recovering in many parts of its former range, thanks to the brilliant, admirable, and almost too late intervention of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), which banned the insecticide dichloro-diphenyl-trichloroethane (DDT) in 1972, and the protections granted this magnificent bird under the Endangered Species Act.
    • Despite this recovery, Bald Eagles face many hazards from environmental pollution, hunting, and infectious diseases
  • Bald Eagles require isolation to successfully breed and rear eaglets. Parents can be driven to abandon nestlings if humans encroach on the nest areas.
    • Never crowd, harass or molest nesting birds, or investigate bird nests.
    • Stay an absolute minimum of a quarter mile (0.4 km) from any adult Bald Eagle or nest (Stokes and Stokes 1989).

Bald Eagle Classification

Phylum

Chordata

Class

Aves

Order

Accipitriformes

Family

Accipitridae (Hawks and Eagles)

Genus

Haliaeetus

Species

H. leucocephalus

Binomial Name

Haliaeetus leucocephalus

author avatar
Christine
Christine is the creator and author of NowIWonder.com, a website dedicated to the animals and plants that share our world, and the science that helps us understand them. Inspired by lifelong exploration and learning, Christine loves to share her knowledge with others who want to connect with wild faces and wild spaces.
See Full Bio

Similar Posts