Animal · United States, Canada
Bald eagle
Haliaeetus leucocephalus — the name this animal has in the language scientists everywhere share.
The bald eagle is the national bird of the United States, known for its white head and tail feathers. It lives near rivers, lakes and coasts across North America, where it hunts fish.
Picture credit: Andy Morffew (CC BY 2.0) · Paul Friel (CC BY 2.0) · Andy Morffew (CC BY 2.0) · Wikimedia Commons
Where does the bald eagle live?
Home: Rivers, lakes and coasts across North America.
In the wild you find it in: United States, Canada.
Conservation status from the IUCN: not in danger.
The short profile
Fully grown it measures 70–100 cm long, wingspan up to 2.3 m. It weighs about 5 kilograms. On the menu: meat.
The story behind it
Bald eagles are powerful hunters that swoop down to snatch fish out of the water with their sharp talons, though they also steal food from other birds and eat carrion when they find it. Adults do not get their white head and tail until they are about five years old; before that, young eagles are mostly brown and are often mistaken for a different species. Bald eagles build the largest nests of any North American bird, some weighing over a tonne after years of repairs. Once endangered by the pesticide DDT, which weakened their eggshells, the species has recovered strongly since the chemical was banned, and today bald eagles are a real conservation success story.
Find it on the globe
Bald eagle is there as a tiny animated figure that breathes and looks around. From far away the planet is only a blue ball; detail arrives as you zoom in, and this one appears once you are close enough. Open it on the globe.
It sits at its real coordinates, not near them — the same numbers listed in the facts above. Switch off the layer for this kind of place and it disappears again; the buttons for that are down the right-hand edge.
Questions children ask
How fast can a bald eagle fly?
Bald eagles glide at around 65 km/h and dive even faster, reaching speeds of over 120 km/h when swooping down to catch fish or chase off rivals.
Why does a bald eagle have a white head?
Adult bald eagles grow white head and tail feathers once they reach about five years old. Before that, young eagles are brown all over, which helps them blend in while they learn to hunt.
Are bald eagles endangered?
No, bald eagles are listed as least concern today. They nearly disappeared in the mid-1900s because of the pesticide DDT, but strict laws and habitat protection helped their numbers recover fully.
Where these numbers come from
Every figure on this page was checked against public reference sources before publication. Where sources genuinely disagree, the text says so.
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