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The bald eagle is placed in the genus Haliaeetus (), and gets both its common and specific scientific names from the distinctive appearance of the adult's head. Bald in the English name is from an older usage meaning "having white on the face or head" rather than "hairless", referring to the white head feathers contrasting with the darker body. [4]
Goats slightly outnumbered sheep in the diet of eagles breeding on Corsica, with both domesticated animals making up 20.5% of the diet there and being the most important food source. [29] In North America, lambs and goats were found to comprise less than 1.4% of all prey items. [88]
Eagle is the common name for the golden eagle, bald eagle, and other birds of prey in the family of the Accipitridae. Eagles belong to several groups of genera, some of which are closely related. True eagles comprise the genus Aquila. Most of the 68 species of eagles are from Eurasia and Africa. [1]
The diet of golden eagles is composed primarily of small mammals such as rabbits, hares, ground squirrels, prairie dogs, and marmots. They also eat other birds (usually of medium size, such as gamebirds), [74] reptiles, and fish in smaller numbers. Golden eagles occasionally capture large prey, including seals, ungulates, coyotes, and badgers.
[12] [59] Bald eagle juveniles may be found together with white-tailed eagles in the Aleutian islands (where the white-tailed eagle formerly bred until about 30 years ago) and when vagrants of white-tails occur in Alaska. Juveniles of bald and white-tailed eagles often strongly resemble each other but the bald eagles have a shorter neck, a ...
Distribution and biogeographic history highly determine the origin of migration in birds of prey. Based on some comparative analyses, diet breadth also has an effect on the evolution of migratory behaviour in this group, [11] but its relevance needs further investigation. The evolution of migration in animals seems to be a complex and difficult ...
In the largest study near Canberra, over 5.5 years, 19.3% of the diet of wedge-tailed eagles was rabbits (12.7% of prey biomass) among 1421 prey items, so the eagles took a total of some 275 rabbits in the 11 to 17 studied territories of the area. [84]
Once located, prey is captured by diving. Eagles sometimes hunt by standing in or near shallow water on a sandbank, spit, or ice-floe, grabbing passing fish. Compared with its white-tailed and bald eagle relatives, Steller's sea eagle reportedly is a more "aggressive, powerful, and active" raptor. [30]