The Bald Eagle Story

It was an ordinary day.  Trying to decide what type of story I should write today to share with my readers.  Decided to write about something I have written about in the past, but is such an amazing topic that I  thought I would write about it one more time. The topic which I chose was the bald eagle which as you might be aware is a bird of prey that is found in North America.  The bald eagle is what is known as an opportunistic feeder which lives

mainly on fish which it swoops down upon and snatches from the water with its talons.  It builds the largest nest of any North American bird and the largest tree nests ever recorded for any animal species which can be as large as up to 13 feet deep, 8.2 feet wide and 1 metric ton in weight.  Bald eagles are not really bald.  Their name is derived from an older meaning of the word "white headed."  The adult is mainly brown with a white head and tail.  The sexes are identical in plumage, but females are about 25% larger than males.  The yellow beak is large and hooked.  The plumage of the immature, or younger bird, is brown.   The bald eagle is the national bird of the United States of America and appears on its seal.  In the late 20th century it was on the brink of extinction in the contiguous United States.  Populations have since recovered and the species' status was upgraded from "endangered" to "threatened" in 1950, and removed from the list altogether in 2007.  The bald eagle is placed in the genus Haliaeetus (meaning sea eagle), and gets both its common and specific scientific names from the distinctive appearance of the adult's head.  

The amazing Bald Eagle

"Bald" in the English name is from an older usage meaning "having white on the face or head" rather than "hairless", referring to the white head feathers contrasting with the darker body.  There are two recognized subspecies of bald eagle.  The "leucocephalus" is the nominate subspecies and is found in the southern United States and Baja California Peninsula.  The "washingtoniensis" is the northern subspecies and is larger than southern nominate leucocephalus.  It is found in the northern United States, Canada and Alaska.  The bald eagle forms a species pair with the white-tailed eagle of Eurasia.  This species pair consists of a white-headed and a tan-headed species of roughly equal size.  The two species fill the same ecological niche in their respective ranges.  The plumage of an adult bald eagle is evenly dark brown with a white head and tail.  The tail is moderately long and slightly wedge-shaped.  Males and females are identical in plumage coloration, but sexual dimorphism is evident in the species.  The legs are feather-free, and the toes are short and powerful with large talons.  The highly develop talon of the hind toe is used to pierce the vital areas of prey while it is held immobile by the front toes.  The beak is large and hooked, with a yellow coloration.  The adult bald eagle is unmistakable in it native range. The plumage of the immature is a dark brown overlaid with messy white streaking until the fifth year, when it reaches sexual maturity.  Immature bald eagles are distinguishable from the golden eagle, in that the former has a larger, more protruding head with a larger beak, straighter edged wings which are held flat and with a stiffer wing beat and feather which do not completely cover the legs.  The golden eagle is distinctive in plumage with a more solid warm brown color than an immature bald eagle, with a reddish-golden patch to its nape and a highly contrasting set of white squares on the wing.  The bald eagle has sometimes been considered the largest true raptor in North America.  It's body has a body length of 28-40 inches.  Typical wingspan is between 5 feet 11 inches and 7 feet 7 inches with a mass between 6.6 and 13.9 pounds.  Females are about 25% larger than males.  The size of the bird varies by location with birds larger in size the further they are away from the equator.  The bald eagle is a sacred bird in some North American cultures with its feathers central to many religious and spiritual customs among Native Americans.  

The bald eagle is the national bird of the United States of America.  The bald eagle appears on most official seals of the U.S. government, including the presidential seal, the presidential flag and in the logos of many U.S. federal agencies.  It was another extraordinary day in the life of an ordinary guy.