Bald Eagle (Haliaeetus leucocephalus)
Golden Eagle (Aquila chrysaetos)
By Sevilla Rhoads
Even people who tend not to notice birds turn their heads to stare when this species swoops across Sunriver with its talons outstretched, causing fearful birds and animals to scatter and hide. While walking along the river or beside our lakes, you may hear panicked squawking and frantic splashing, then turn to find a hulking dark shadow lifting away an unlucky duckling or a flailing fish. More often, the angry and desperate calls are bird versions of “Stop thief!” as this brawny plunderer takes off with someone else’s catch or young. The Bald Eagle reigns over the waterways of Central Oregon.
One historical meaning for the word ‘bald’ is white, and the ancient Greek word leucocephalus means white-headed—no wonder most visitors expect all Sunriver’s Bald Eagles to have white heads. So often, people stop Sunriver birders, then point to a brown-headed eagle and ask if it is a Golden. It is a great question! Almost always, the bird is an immature Bald Eagle. Bald Eagles usually take around four or five years to reach their true white-headed plumage. During their first four years or so, Bald Eagles sport a wide array of mottled brown styles with various white patches. It is hard to tell these immature Baldies from Goldens, but there are many guides to the differences online, for example https://www.potawatomi.org/blog/2019/03/11/differences-between-bald-golden-eagles/
If you want to see a Golden Eagle in Sunriver, your best bet is to visit Aquila, the Nature Center’s captive Golden, whose fortieth birthday is this March (likely making her the oldest captive eagle in the country). While nothing rivals seeing birds out in the wild, it is incredible to get so close to a formidable bird of prey like Aquila. You instinctively take a breath and step back when you see the size of a Golden’s talons, which can be three inches long. If you or your kids enjoy dragons in books and movies, stand within ten feet of Aquila and imagine this seven-foot wing spanned bird diving at a hundred and fifty miles an hour to take down a coyote or deer. Goldens are one of North America’s fastest, most agile, and largest raptors: certainly a match for Disney’s dragons!
While Bald Eagles breed in and around Sunriver, Central Oregons’ Golden Eagles tend to prefer habitats that are more open and slightly less forested, especially where there are canyons for nesting. Golden Eagle sightings in Sunriver are extremely rare.
However, almost daily, you see Bald Eagles here. Bald Eagles like to nest on piles of sticks high on trees and platforms near water. If you look up and around you as you walk and boat in the Sunriver area, you are likely to spot a Bald Eagle’s nest with one or more mature adults in the vicinity. Immature Baldies also frequent the neighborhood. It is not uncommon to see a fight or two between the generations as the older ones not-so-gently persuade the younger ones to find their territories.
Bald Eagles can catch their prey, but they excel at muscling their way into a pre-caught meal. If they shopped in a grocery store, you would find them elbowing smaller customers out of the way at the prepared seafood and meat bar! It is not uncommon at Sunriver to come across a Bald Eagle snatching fish from Ospreys or bullying Red-tailed Hawks to drop a tasty rodent.
While our eagles mostly steal and scavenge for a living, their burly good looks have inspired symbols of power throughout history. Eagles are often associated with military and imperial strength in Western Europe, such as Roman, Napoleonic, and certain German emblems. In 1782, the U.S. Congress approved a Bald Eagle design for the new country’s federal seal. However, this choice was controversial: https://www.nwf.org/Magazines/National-Wildlife/2007/Americas-First-Bird-Controversy
Like the Numu (known by many as the Northern Paiute), some nations focused less on the eagles’ aggressive tendencies and more on their ability to fly high and see exceptionally well. For example, when you read some Hunipuitoka band stories, an eagle helps people by flying high over Mount Bachelor to look for food on the other side of the mountains. An eagle appears in the Numu creation story as the first to look out into the world, then lead others from caves to life in the daylight of (what is now called) Eastern and Central Oregon. https://onda.org/2019/01/creation-story/. As we watch Sunriver’s Bald Eagles lifting high into the sky until they are just dots circling towards the sun, we can connect through time by imagining the people who stood in the same place, long before settlers, watching (perhaps with similar admiration) the same species.
Native American history is rich with references to eagles, and some use eagle feathers and parts for traditional rituals, medicine, and other purposes. Eagles are so important to many tribes that the Law Enforcement division of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Department has an eagle repository. https://www.fws.gov/program/national-eagle-repository State and federal employees are supposed to send all eagle remains and feathers to this unique facility. It is illegal to possess eagle feathers and parts unless you have a special permit. Any adult member of a federally recognized tribe can apply for eagle parts from the repository.
As you observe the eagles around us, you may notice they tend to perch up high or circle above while looking down. Eagles have incredible vision that allows them to see details at great distances. With vision at least three times more powerful than humans, they can see something the size of a rabbit from around three miles away (which equates to a person atop a ten-story building seeing an ant on a sidewalk.) While an eagle’s eyes are fixed in place, so they have to move their heads to move their eyes, each eye has two focal points allowing them to see ahead and to the side simultaneously. Additionally, unlike our binocular vision, each eagle eye can focus independently. Like many birds, they also see more colors than we do because they can see UV light. This ability allows them to better see animals’ urine trails, fur, and feathers in the landscape below.
Eagles may have some of the strongest eyes in the animal world, but this asset comes with a price. The extraordinary visual acuity comes from the high number and density of cones or nerves in the back of the eagle’s eye. This makes eagles’ more sensitive to direct sunlight. Like Flickers, eagles have a see-through eyelid which slides out from the side of the eye like automatic safety sunglasses. They also can blink by bringing up a heavy lower eyelid as needed. In addition, eagles have heavy set eyebrows which, in addition to contributing to their good looks, block out light from above.
Approaching a wind turbine, the blind spot caused by the overhanging eyebrow is fatal when eagles are hit by blades coming down. Some wind power companies hire eagle watchers who can shut down the blades when an eagle approaches, but humans do not have ‘eagle eyes’ so many birds are missed and die. More advanced wind factories have birding robots which are four to five times more effective in spotting eagles in time to turn off the blades.
Bald Eagles are unique to North America, living in Canada, the continental U.S., and Mexico. Many of Sunriver’s Bald Eagles stay year-round, but some migrate, and immature eagles can travel vast distances looking for new territories.
Female Bald Eagles are larger than males. Bald Eagle pairs often mate for life. Baldies have a famous courtship ritual that makes modern human trust and team-building exercises seem rather tame. From a great height with talons clasped together, they spiral downwards, only letting go of each other at the very last moment to avoid crashing into the ground.
The entwined talon spin is even more astonishing when you consider the impressive size and strength of eagle talons. To grip and kill large prey, eagle talons have a tendon adaption which acts like a ratchet. When the eagle closes around the prey, tendon ridges interlock into sheaths to lock the grip in place. With tendons locked in place, the eagle can relax its muscles enough to hold the high pressure grasp for long periods of time without getting tired.
Enjoying the splendor of our local eagles, we are thankful for the conservation efforts which saved the species from extinction. When Congress approved the Bald Eagle symbol, there were over a hundred thousand. However, as the U.S. grew in population, Bald Eagle numbers plummeted. The primary causes of decline were hunting, pesticides, and habitat loss. In 1963, only 417 breeding pairs remained.
Interior Secretary Deb Haaland described the nationwide effort to bring the Bald Eagle back from the brink of extinction as “a historic conservation success story.” Together, governments, both U.S. and Native American, and countless individuals and organizations saved the species. Currently, there are over seventy-thousand breeding pairs of Bald Eagles. The once-controversial Bald Eagle emblem could now represent how miracles can happen when Americans unify toward a common goal.
Sadly, eagles again face a grave threat. On February 17, 2022, Science published the results of an extensive peer-reviewed study which estimated almost half of the country’s Bald and Golden Eagles have chronic toxic levels of lead poisoning. The eagles ingest lead from hunting ammunition and fishing sinkers. For more information about lead poisoning and related symptoms in eagles, see: https://www.thinkwildco.org/lead-poisoned-golden-eagle-to-be-released-back-to-the-wild/
If you see a Bald Eagle flapping about in a Sunriver lake or river, you might think it is sick, but pause before calling for help because Bald Eagles can and do swim. At first, the eagle’s ‘butterfly’ stroke looks rather lumbering and somewhat alarming, especially when it bobs its head in and out of the water. However, they usually get themselves to shore safely, sometimes even with a large fish or a duck in tow. Haliaeetus means sea eagle because Bald Eagles’ primary habitat is around water. Reduced open and healthy waterways caused by droughts and human development in Central Oregon pose additional challenges for our eagles. Particularly when scavenging may not provide enough food for growing chicks, Bald Eagles rely on the extra meals provided by fishing and hunting waterfowl.
Aquila’s fortieth birthday reminds us that eagles can live for many years, sometimes reaching fifty even in the wild. So, if we keep working together to conserve these incredible birds, kids staring in wonder today at Sunriver’s Bald Eagles may well see the very same birds with their kids in the future. And hopefully, eagles will grace our skies for many more generations to come.
Identification Tips
Central Oregon’s eagles are large birds of prey with wide long wings that end in separated feathers. They have chunky hooked bills and heavy eyebrows. Their legs are yellow-orange with long dark talons. They often soar or perch up high.
Vultures are darker overall with bald reddish heads and are not usually present in Sunriver during the winter. Local hawks tend to be smaller than eagles and their wingspans are closer to or shorter than the length of their bodies as compared to eagles’ wingspans being clearly longer than their bodies.
In the Sunriver area, Golden Eagles are rare. Goldens do not have white heads or tails, but usually are more solid brown overall unlike the often heavily mottled Bald Eagles. Sometimes you can make out the lighter brown nape on mature Goldens. When flying, immature Bald Eagles, unlike Goldens, often have some white just below the neck and shoulders where the wings meet the body. It can be hard to tell an immature Bald from a Golden when perched, but note the bill and head size and color then consult a guide.
Mature Bald Eagles have bold white heads and tails with brown bodies. Baldies younger than five years old appear just as large (sometimes larger) than adults, but lack the clear white head and tail. Immature eagles have widely differing plumages of mottled brown and white patches. Fledglings are mostly brown.
Mature Bald Eagles have vivid or pale yellowish bills, but younger eagles can have darker bills appearing almost black on the tip.
For more information about identifying juvenile and sub-adult Bald Eagles, see:
https://avianreport.com/age-and-identify-a-juvenile-and-sub-adult-bald-eagle/