Physical Description
These iconic birds go through 4 distinct festering stages, each comprising one class of their life sentence. immediately after hatching, bald eagles have dark eyes, with pink legs and hide and flesh biased talons, their skin darkens to a blue imbue and their stage become yellow within the first 18 to 22 days of their life. Throughout their first base year, their bodies, eyes and beaks are dark brown, although their underwing coverts and axillaries are white. In their 2nd class, their eyes lighten, becoming grey-brown, they develop a clean colored superciliary line and their body becomes mottle white. During their 3rd year, their bills and eyes begin to turn chicken and the coloration of their headway feathers lighten, although their torso remains mottle. In their 4th year, their body becomes largely dark and their head and tail become by and large white, with some beige around their eyes and crown and isolate colored spots on their tail. finally, mature color is reached in their 5th class. Immature bald eagles are much confused with gold eagles due to their dark coloration. These birds can be differentiated based on the blotchy white coloration found on the underwing coverts, axillaries and tails of young bald eagles ; similarly, bald eagles have longer heads and shorter tails. ( Alderfer, 2006 ; Bortolotti, 1984a ; Bortolotti, 1984b ; Dickinson, 1991 ; Sibley, 2003 )
Adult bald eagles are extremely big birds with characteristically jaundiced eyes and bills, white heads and tails and dark embrown bodies, which may appear about black. Although these birds obtain their adult feather during their 5th year, they may continue to have a few darkness spots on their head and tail for several extra years. Bald eagles have sexually monomorphic feather coloration, although females broadly have a slightly larger body size. These birds have highly large, brawny bodies ; broadly their plank-like wings have a span of 178 to 229 cm, their bodies are 79 to 94 cm long and they weigh about 4.3 kg. Their feather alone weighs about 700 grams, which is doubly arsenic much as their skeleton, if lost ; their flight feathers may take 2 to 3 years to replace. These birds besides have large heads, necks, bills and feet with sharp talons. ( Alderfer, 2006 ; Bortolotti, 1984a ; Crossley, 2011 ; Dickinson, 1991 ; Gill, 2007 ; Kaufman, 2000 ; Sibley, 2003 )
- Other Physical Features
- endothermic
- bilateral symmetry
- Sexual Dimorphism
- female larger
- Average mass
- 4.3 kg
- 9.47 lb
- Average mass
- 3175 g
- 111.89 oz
- AnAge
- Range length
- 79 to 94 cm
- 31.10 to 37.01 in
- Range wingspan
- 178 to 229 cm
- 70.08 to 90.16 in
Lifespan/Longevity
Bald eagles are durable with gloomy adult mortality rates, although many of their eggs do not survive. A study in Florida found that a year after fledge, unfledged bald eagles have a survival rate of 89 % in rural habitats and 65 to 72 % in suburban habitats. After their 1st year, birds have an annual survival rate of 84 to 90 %, careless of their habitat type. In northerly California, adult birds tend to have a 90 % annual survival pace. These birds have an estimated captive life of 20 to 30 years, although one captive individual reportedly survived for 47 years. Among crazy individuals, bald eagles in yellowstone are estimated to have a 15.4 year life anticipation, whereas in Prince William Sound, rampantly eagles are expected to survive about 19 years, with no dispute in male and female life spans. The oldest known bald eagle in the wild was found in Alaska and survived 28 years, in northerly California, the oldest known eagle survived 22 years. Their deaths are much caused by anthropogenetic factors such as electrocution, vehicle collisions, getting caught in leg traps and accidental poison. natural causes of death include starvation, undernourishment, disease and trauma caused by violent weather. ( Gill, 2007 ; Hancock, 1973 ; Jenkins and Jackman, 2006 ; McClelland, et al., 1994 ; Millsap, et al., 2004 ; Schempf, 1997 ; Travsky and Beauvais, 2004 )
- Range lifespan
condition : rampantly - 28 (high) years
- Range lifespan
- Range lifespan
condition : enslavement - 47 (high) years
- Range lifespan
- Typical lifespan
status : violent - 15 to 20 years
- Typical lifespan
- Typical lifespan
status : enslavement - 20 to 30 years
- Typical lifespan
Economic Importance for Humans: Positive
Bald eagles have been the national symbol of the United States since 1782. As a highly charismatic species, bald eagles draw bird watchers and early nature enthusiasts. In 1989, it was estimated that 20 to 30 million people are involved in bird watch activities, which may equate to approximately 20 billion dollars per annum. ( Burnie and Wilson, 2001 ; Hvenegaard, et al., 1989 ; Kaufman, 2000 ; Loomis and White, 1996 )
- Positive Impacts
- ecotourism
Contributors
Leila Siciliano Martina ( generator ), Animal Diversity Web Staff .
Glossary
- Nearctic
-
surviving in the Nearctic biogeographic province, the northerly part of the New World. This includes Greenland, the Canadian Arctic islands, and all of the north american english as far south as the highlands of central Mexico .
- acoustic
- uses sound to communicate
- altricial
- young are born in a relatively developing state ; they are ineffective to feed or care for themselves or locomote independently for a period of prison term after birth/hatching. In birds, naked and helpless after hatching .
- arboreal
- Referring to an animal that lives in trees ; tree-climbing .
- bilateral symmetry
- having body isotropy such that the animal can be divided in one airplane into two mirror-image halves. Animals with bilateral symmetry have dorsal and ventral sides, equally well as anterior and posterior ends. Synapomorphy of the Bilateria .
- carnivore
- an animal that chiefly eats meat
- carrion
- flesh of dead animals .
- chemical
- uses smells or other chemicals to communicate
- coastal
- the nearshore aquatic habitats near a coast, or shoreline .
- diurnal
- active during the day, 2. lasting for one day.
- ecotourism
- humans benefit economically by promoting tourism that focuses on the taste of natural areas or animals. ecotourism implies that there are existing programs that profit from the appreciation of natural areas or animals .
- endothermic
- animals that use metabolically generated heating system to regulate body temperature independently of ambient temperature. Endothermy is a synapomorphy of the Mammalia, although it may have arisen in a ( now extinct ) synapsid ancestor ; the fossil record does not distinguish these possibilities. convergent in birds .
- estuarine
- an area where a fresh water river meets the ocean and tidal influences result in fluctuations in brininess .
- female parental care
- parental manage is carried out by females
- forest
- forest biomes are dominated by trees, otherwise forest biomes can vary wide in come of precipitation and seasonality .
- iteroparous
- offspring are produced in more than one group ( litters, clutches, etc. ) and across multiple seasons ( or other periods hospitable to reproduction ). Iteroparous animals must, by definition, outlive over multiple seasons ( or periodic condition changes ) .
- male parental care
- parental caution is carried out by males
- migratory
- makes seasonal worker movements between breeding and wintering grounds
- monogamous
- Having one mate at a time .
- motile
- having the capacity to move from one place to another .
- mountains
- This terrestrial biome includes summits of gamey mountains, either without vegetation or covered by low, tundra-like vegetation .
- native range
- the area in which the animal is naturally found, the region in which it is endemic .
- oviparous
- reproduction in which eggs are released by the female ; development of offspring occurs outside the mother ‘s consistency .
- piscivore
- an animal that chiefly eats fish
- seasonal breeding
- breed is confined to a particular season
- sexual
- reproduction that includes combining the genetic contribution of two individuals, a male and a female
- solitary
- lives alone
- tactile
- uses touch to communicate
- temperate
- that area of the Earth between 23.5 degrees North and 60 degrees North ( between the Tropic of Cancer and the Arctic Circle ) and between 23.5 degrees South and 60 degrees South ( between the Tropic of Capricorn and the Antarctic Circle ) .
- visual
- uses sight to communicate
References
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I am broadly interested in how human activities influence the ability of wildlife to persist in the modified environments that we create.
Specifically, my research investigates how the configuration and composition of landscapes influence the movement and population dynamics of forest birds. Both natural and human-derived fragmenting of habitat can influence where birds settle, how they access the resources they need to survive and reproduce, and these factors in turn affect population demographics. Most recently, I have been studying the ability of individuals to move through and utilize forested areas which have been modified through timber harvest as they seek out resources for the breeding and postfledging phases. As well I am working in collaboration with Parks Canada scientists to examine in the influence of high density moose populations on forest bird communities in Gros Morne National Park. Many of my projects are conducted in collaboration or consultation with representatives of industry and government agencies, seeking to improve the management and sustainability of natural resource extraction.