Bald Eagle

The bald eagle, the national bird of the United States, ranges widely in North America, from Alaska to Florida, with the largest coming from the northern parts of the range. After the breeding season the northern birds migrate south, whereas many Florida eagles wander northward. The name bald, often thought to be a misnomer, does not imply a lack of feathers, but is derived from an obsolete word meaning marked with white, as in piebald. Young birds of this species lack the white head and tail of the adults, which take four to five years to attain. Compared to other eagles, the Bald Eagle is a relatively clumsy hunter and fisher, and for its prey relies heavily on dead or injured fish, or those that come to shallow water to spawn. It also steals fish from the osprey when the smaller bird has captured a live fish, harassing it in the air until the osprey drops the fish, whereupon the eagle snatches it. The Eurasian counterpart of the Bald Eagle is the white-tailed sea eagle, which occasionally strays to Alaska. It is grayer than the Bald Eagle, and its head is pale but not white. The largest member of this group is Steller's sea eagle, which inhabits coastal northeastern Asia and occasionally visits the Aleutian and Pribilof islands of Alaska. It is a blackish eagle with a wedge-shaped white tail and (in adults) a large patch of white on the shoulders.