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| [Note Guidelines] Photographer's Note |
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The White-tailed Eagle (Haliaeetus albicilla), also known as the Sea Eagle, Erne (sometimes Ern), or White-tailed Sea-eagle, is a large bird of prey in the family Accipitridae which includes other raptors such as hawks, kites, and harriers. It is considered a close cousin of the Bald Eagle and occupies the same ecological niche in Eurasia. The White-tailed Eagle is a large bird, 69–92 cm (27–36 in) long with a 182–244 cm (72–96 in) wingspan. Females, weighing 4–6.9 kg (8.8–15.2 lbs), are slightly larger than males, which weigh 3.1-5.4 kg (6.8–12 lbs). It is the fourth largest eagle in the World. It has broad "barn door" wings, a large head and a thick "meat-cleaver" beak. The adult is mainly brown except for the paler head and neck, blackish flight feathers, distinctive white tail, and yellow bill and legs. In juvenile birds the tail and bill are darker, with the tail becoming white with a dark terminal band in sub-adults.
Some individuals have been found to live over 25 years, 21 years on average. This large eagle breeds in northern Europe and northern Asia. The largest population in Europe is found along the coast of Norway. The World population in 2008 stands at only 9,000 - 11,000 pairs. They are mostly resident, only the northernmost birds such as the eastern Scandinavian and Siberian population migrating south in winter. Small disjunct resident populations occur in southwesternmost Greenland and western Iceland. The former has been proposed as a distinct subspecies groenlandicus based on their very large size and body proportions. However, the species is now considered monotypic and the size variation is clinal according to Bergmann's Rule. A recent genetic study of mitochondrial DNA is consistent with this idea. Greenlandic white-tailed eagles are, on evolutionary time scales, a relatively recently founded population that has not yet accumulated a lot of unique genetic characteristics. However, the population appears to be demographically isolated and deserves special protection. The White-tailed Eagle forms a species pair with the Bald Eagle. These diverged from other sea eagles at the beginning of the early Miocene (c. 10 mya) at the latest, possibly (if the most ancient fossil record is correctly assigned to this genus) as early as the early or middle Oligocene, about 28 mya ago. |
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