ADW: Haliaeetus leucocephalus: INFORMATION

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
  condition : enslavement

  47 (high) years

• Typical lifespan
  status : violent

  15 to 20 years

• Typical lifespan
  status : enslavement

  20 to 30 years

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

1. 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

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