Bald eagle

The sharp-eyed hunter of the skies

The bald eagle is the symbol of America. Its wings spread more than 2 metres — wider than an adult is tall! An eagle's eyes are 4–8 times sharper than ours: it can see a fish from 3 km up. Eagles build huge nests — some weigh as much as a car!

The bald eagle (Haliaeetus leucocephalus) is a bird of prey of North America and the national symbol of the USA since 1782. 'Bald' doesn't mean hairless — it's Old English for 'white-headed'. Its wingspan reaches 2.3 m; it feeds mainly on fish, snatching them from the water with its talons. Its eyesight is 4–8 times sharper than a human's, with two foveae (points of sharp vision). Nests are added to for years — the record nest was 6 m deep and weighed 2.7 tonnes. In 1963 the pesticide DDT had left just 417 pairs in the USA; after DDT was banned, numbers recovered to more than 300,000 today — a classic conservation success.

Fun facts

• An eagle can spot a rabbit from 3 km up.
• The biggest eagle nest ever found weighed 2.7 tonnes — as much as two cars!
• A bald eagle's head only turns white when it's about 5 years old.
• Eagle pairs stay together for life and return to the same nest every year.