August 1, 2009; Yellowstone River;Yellowstone National Park.
From Wikipedia:The
Bald Eagle (
Haliaeetus leucocephalus Greek hali = salt, aeetus = eagle, leuco = white, cephalis = head) is a
bird of prey found in North America. It is the
national bird of the United States of America and appears on its
Seal. This
sea eagle has two known sub-species and forms a
species pair with the
White-tailed Eagle. Its range includes most of Canada and Alaska, all of the
contiguous United States, and northern Mexico. It is found near large bodies of open water with an abundant food supply and old-growth trees for nesting.
Its diet consists mainly of
fish, but it is an opportunistic feeder. It hunts fish by swooping down and snatching them out of the water with its talons. It is sexually mature at four years or five years of age. The Bald Eagle builds the largest
nest of any North American bird, up to 4 meters (13 ft) deep, 2.5 meters (8.2 ft) wide, and one
metric ton (1.1
tons) in weight.
[2]The adult Bald Eagle is mainly brown with a white head and tail. The sexes are identical in
plumage, but females are larger than males. The
beak is large and hooked. The plumage of the immature is brown. Bald Eagles are not actually
bald, the name derives from the older meaning of the word, "white headed".
In the late 20th century the Bald Eagle was on the brink of
extirpation in the continental United States, while flourishing in much of Alaska and Canada. Populations recovered and stabilized, so the species was removed from the
U.S. federal government's list of
endangered species and transferred to the list of
threatened species on July 12, 1995, and it was removed from the List of Endangered and Threatened Wildlife in the
Lower 48 States on June 28, 2007.