About

Are bald eagles actually bald?

No. Their head is covered with short, white feathers. The term bald may be from the Old English word balde, which meant white. Bald eagles are sometimes called American eagles, fishing eagles, Washington eagles, and white-headed eagles. They belong to a scientific grouping of eagles known as sea-eagles or fish eagles.

Threats

Bald Eagles face numerous threats that endanger their populations. Habitat loss and degradation due to urban development, logging, and pollution are major concerns, reducing their natural living spaces and affecting their health. Climate change impacts further threaten their survival by disrupting breeding cycles and inundating coastal nesting sites. Poisoning from lead ingestion through spent ammunition and fishing tackle, as well as exposure to pesticides, poses significant risks to their health. Human disturbance from recreational activities near nesting sites can lead to nest abandonment, and illegal shooting and trapping continue to be problems despite legal protections. Additionally, collisions with power lines, wind turbines, and vehicles, as well as competition and predation from other wildlife, further threaten their populations.

Conservation Action

Whether you live in the city or the country, owls help us by controlling rodent and insect populations. But we often treat owls as enemies, and they fall victim to poison when fields are sprayed to kill weeds, insects, and rodents. We can help owls by finding other ways to control pests: for example, let owls and other predators do this job. They also need open spaces and trees if they are to survive. Each type of owl has different needs: some need forests, like the spotted owl, while the largest owl, the Eurasian eagle-owl, needs large territories and large prey.

Owls don’t have teeth, so they can’t chew their food; they rip their food apart and swallow the chunks or swallow their prey whole. They cough up or “cast” packets of bones and hair they are unable to digest. Dissecting these pellets (as many a biology student has done) reveals the owl’s diet.