The Pygargue with white head ( Haliaeetus leucocephalus ) is a Rapace which lives in North America. In spite of its English name of Bald Eagle (“eagle bald person”) or its popular denomination of “eagle with white head”, it is not a question of a eagle but of a Pygargue: it is characterized from it by its food Régime, primarily composed of Poisson S, but also by its big size and its massive Bec. Whereas the eagle lives in the main forests and the Montagne S, the sea eagle prefers the Lac S, the Rivière S and the coastal areas, where it can find its food. For this reason, it is sometimes named “eagle of sea”. Subdivided into two Subspecies S, it meets Alaska in the north of the Mexico. Chosen like national symbol by this country, the species was a time threatened with the the United States at the 20th century, but it is not any more the case today.

Description

Cut and weight

The sea eagle with white head is a Oiseau of big size: its body measures between 71 and 96 centimetres for a weight from 3 to 6.3 kilograms. The species presents a sexual Dimorphisme because the Femelle S are 25  % larger than the male S. Aussi the maximum Envergure of the bird varies from 168 centimetres for the male with 244 for the female.

The size also varies according to the areas: the smallest specimens live in Florida, in the south-east of the United States, where the male adult seldom exceeds the 2.3 kilograms for a scale of 1.8 meters. The most imposing sea eagles with white head are in Alaska, where largest weigh more than 7.5 kilograms for a scale of more than 2.4 meters.

Plumage

One easily recognizes the adult individual with his brown Plumage, his white head and his tail, whether it is male or female. The young people are completely brown except for the legs.

The eyes and the legs of the sea eagle with white head are of a sharp, just like its Bec, hooked yellow.

The plumage of the young person is brown with white spots until the individual reaches his sexual Maturité, towards the age of four or five years.

Taxonomy

In English, the sea eagle with white head ( Haliaeetus leucocephalus ) bears the name of Bald Eagle which comes from the word piebald indicating a two-tone animal or Pie. The scientific name comes from the Greek haliaetos taken again by Latin ( Haliaeetus ) who means “eagle of sea”. Leucocephalus wants to say “white head” and comes from the Greek “λευκος” ( leukos = “white”) and from “κεφαλη” ( kephale = “head”).

The sea eagle with white head was described by the naturalist Swedish Carl von Linné (1707-1778), in its work Systema Naturae , under the name of Falco leucocephalus .

Two subspecies of sea eagle with white head are recognized:

• H.L. leucocephalus (Linnaeus, 1766) is different from the H.L. washingtoniensis in the south of the 38 {{E}} parallel north, is about with the Latitude of the town of San Francisco in California. It is present at the south of the 38e parallel north on the littoral Atlantique of the United States, for example in the area of the Cap Hatteras. This subspecies is larger than the nominal form.

Distribution and habitat

The sea eagle with white head generally lives close to the maritime coasts, of the rivers, the lakes rich in fish. Studies showed that he prefers the stretches of water of a Circonférence higher than 10 kilometers.

This raptor needs large trees (Conifère S or Feuillu S) to perch and make its nest. It chooses forests whose Canopée covers with 20 with 60  % and being close to a water point.

Ethology

In flight, the sea eagle with white head uses the ascending currents to move. It can easily reach speeds of 56 kilometers per hour in planed flight with 70 in beaten flight. It can fly at approximately 50 kilometers per hour to catch a fish. Locally, its mode can however deviate substantially from the general outline. Thus, in British Columbia, the fish use only for 10% its food, whereas the Invertébré S sailors account for of them 45% and the birds 41%. In certain situations, in particular in winter, it can nourish Charogne S of Ongulé S, Baleine S or fish. It sometimes happens to him to take its food in the camp-sites, on the surfaces of picnic and in the discharges. When it fishes, it does not enter water like the Osprey, but research the fish dead or dying or of fish of surface. In full flight, it tightens its neck ahead, then rejects it behind until touching its back. It captures flying fish and Anguille S by retaining them using its powerful greenhouses. The sea eagle with white head can swim if it is threatened and it happens that he drowns or that it meurre Hypothermie.

It can also nourish Oiseau X like the Grèbe S, the Pingouin S, the Mouette S, the Canard S, the Foulque S, the Aigrette S and the Oie S; it can sometimes attack more important preys like the Grand héron or the Cygne, but also with Mammifère S like the Lapin S, the Lièvre S, the raccoons, the muskrats, the sea otters and the Faon S. the Reptile S, Amphibien S and Crustacé S (in particular the Crabe S) supplement the food mode of the sea eagle with white head. In the colonies of birds of sea, it can exert its predation on the adults and chicks, but also on eggs.

It uses its legs with the sharp-edged greenhouses to seize and transport its Proie S. When food is insufficient, the sea eagle can take food with the other predatory ones, like the Osprey or attack animals like the Coyote, the Renard, the Vautour or the crow. It can itself be attacked by the Golden eagle. In theory solitary, the individuals gather in groups in winter where food is abundant. It is in particular the case during the migration of salmons.

Reproduction

The sea eagle with white head can reproduce as of the four years age (some cases successfully at three years) but generally five years: it turns over then often to the place where it was born (phenomenon of Philopatrie).

The season of reproduction extends from October at April in the south of the surface of distribution of the species and April at August in north.

The couples are reformed each year and carry out a bridal parade spectacular. They cling both by the greenhouses while whirling in full sky, are dropped and separate right before touching the ground. The two partners are faithful one to the other throughout their life. This bond ceases when one dies but also if the couple cannot reproduce.

Male and female build together the Nid, posed on the ground, fixed on a Falaise or installed on a bush or in a large tree (preferably a pine in most of the surface of distribution), close to a stretch of water. The sea eagle with white head builds the largest nests of North America: they can reach four meters height, for 2.5 meters of width and weigh until a ton. The raptors can also quite simply add to their surface already installed various materials: greenery, scraps of skin, balls of rejection, branches… The nest can thus be refilled each year for very a long period, nearly 70 years, before crumbling under its weight.

The female generally lays two eggs per annum, sometimes only one or up to three, seldom four. The eggs, of a dull white, measure on average 7.3 centimetres out of 5.5 centimetres. They can constitute easy preys for the Mouette S, the large corbels, black and white, the black Ours S and the raccoons. The average time of incubation is 35 days. The parents brood in turn then remain with oisillons, being born covered from a pale gray sleeping bag, until they have four weeks. The male and the female take turns to deal with their offspring, to improve the nest and to seek food. Let us oisillons leave the nest towards the age from ten to thirteen weeks.

The sea eagle and men

Statute and safeguarding

The sea eagle with white head was a common species in all the North America before being threatened by various factors in the middle of the 20th century. One allotted the embrittlement of the shell of eggs to the use of the Pesticide DDT and to the Biomagnification. If the DDT is not mortal for the adults, it affects nevertheless the Métabolisme of the bird, returning it Stérile or incompetent to produce viable eggs. In the Years 1950, it remained nothing any more but 412 couples of sea eagles with white head in the United States, apart from the Alaska. Other factors reduced the population of the sea eagles: the degradation of the natural environment, illegal hunting, electrocution on the lines with high voltage, the collisions were the leading causes of mortality of these birds. They were also assigned by pollution to the Pétrole, the Plomb and the mercury like by the human intrusions and the predatory ones.

The sea eagle with white head was initially protected by the treaty on the migratory birds from 1918, initially in the United States and Canada, before this statute is extended to all North America. The Bald Eagle Protection Act of 1940, which also took into account the Golden eagle, prohibited their capture with business ends and their hunting. The sea eagle with white head was declared threatened Espèce by the United States in 1967; amendment S with the law of 1940 were taken to reinforce the commercial restrictions and to weigh down the sorrows towards the contrevants. In 1972, the DDT was interdict in the United States. In 1989, the DDT was completely banished in Canada, after its use was strictly limited at the end of the Années 1970.

These measurements caused an increase of the number of sea eagles. With the beginning of the Years 1980, one estimated their population at: 100000 birds, between: 110000 and: 115000 in 1992, which was officially made on June 28th, 2007. The sea eagle was also classified in the category “minor concern” on the red Liste of the UICN.

Captivity

To keep a sea eagle in captivity is subjected to authorization in the United States. Only the public institutions with educational vocation are authorized to have this bird. They show animals which were wounded and which cannot survive in the natural environment. The sea eagles must be high in adapted equipment and by experienced personnel. They cannot in no case to be used for the Fauconnerie. In general, the sea eagle is not a bird easy to draw up because of its timid, stressed and unforeseeable nature. It cannot live a long time in captivity and does not reproduce, even under the best conditions. With the Canada, an authorization is also necessary for the fauconnery.

The sea eagle in the Amerindian culture

The sea eagle with white head was a bird crowned in several cultures of the North-Amerindians which used its feathers for the religious caps and costumes. The eagles in general were regarded as spiritual messengers between the gods and the human beings. During Pow wow S, several dancers carried the greenhouses of the birds like marks prestige. The feathers were employed in the crowned ceremonies, in the ornamentation of clothing of apparât. The Lakota S for example gave feathers like honorary symbol to the people having carried out an exploit. Today, they can be given at the conclusion of a ceremony of handing-over of university degree.

For the Pawnee S, these birds were symbols of Fertilité because their nests are arranged in height and because they protect their small savagely. The Kwakwaka' wakw scattered feathers to accommodate distinguished guests. At the tribes of the Large Plains, during the Dance of the Sun, one emitted whistles into blowing in a bone of eagle. In the United States, the law stipulates that only the members of an Amerindian tribe recognized by the federal government can obtain feathers of sea eagle with white head or golden eagle for spiritual and religious uses.

Symbol of the United States

The sea eagle with white head is the national bird of the the United States. It is one of the most known Symbole S of the country and appears on the majority of the Sceau X official, including on that of the US president ( image ). It was selected on June 20th, 1782 by the continental Congrès: it is represented holding of the arrow S and a branch of olive-tree between its greenhouses.

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The eagle " Sam" was selected in 1984 to become the mascot of the Olympic Games of summer of Los Angeles. Drawn by Robert Moore and his associates of the Productions Walt Disney, " Sam" the children very took an appearance and jovial in order to like sympathetic nerve.

Appendices

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