Haliaeetus albicilla
Silhouette: Ron Holmes/U. S. Fish and Wildlife Service (source photo), T. Michael Keesey (vectorization) · PhyloPic
In 3 days ~10% in a week ~20%
The white-tailed eagle (Haliaeetus albicilla), sometimes known as the "sea eagle", is a large bird of prey, widely distributed across temperate Eurasia. Like other eagles, it is a member of the family Accipitridae (or accipitrids) which also includes other diurnal raptors such as hawks, kites, and harriers. One of up to eleven members in the genus Haliaeetus, which are commonly called sea eagles, it is also referred to as the white-tailed sea-eagle. Sometimes, it is known as the ern or erne (depending on spelling by sources), gray sea eagle and Eurasian sea eagle.
While found across a wide range, breeding from as far west as Greenland and Iceland across to as far east as Hokkaido, Japan, they may be scarce and have thinly distributed nesting due to human activities, including habitat alteration and destruction of wetlands, about a century of systematic human persecution (from the early 1800s to around World War II) followed by inadvertent poisoning and epidemics of nesting failure due to chemical pesticides and organic compounds, which have threatened eagles since the 1950s and continue to be a concern. For these reasons, the white-tailed eagle was considered endangered or extinct in several countries. Some populations have since recovered well, due to governmental protection, dedicated conservationists and naturalists protecting habitats and nesting sites, regulating poaching and pesticide usage, as well as careful reintroduction into their former range.
White-tailed eagles live most of the year near large bodies of open water, including coastal saltwater areas and inland freshwater lakes, wetlands, bogs and rivers. It requires old-growth trees or ample sea cliffs for nesting, and an abundant food supply of fish and birds (largely water birds) over nearly any other prey. Both a powerful apex predator and an opportunistic scavenger, it forms a species pair with the bald eagle (Haliaeetus leucocephalus), which occupies a similar niche in North America. Wikipedia →
| # | Park | Country | Daily sighting probability |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Kiskunság National Park | 🇭🇺 Hungary | |
| 2 | Hortobágy National Park | 🇭🇺 Hungary | |
| 3 | Biebrza National Park | 🇵🇱 Poland | |
| 4 | Fertő-Hanság National Park | 🇭🇺 Hungary | |
| 5 | Białowieża National Park | 🇵🇱 Poland | |
| 6 | Wadden Sea National Park | 🇩🇪 Germany | |
| 7 | Bavarian Forest National Park | 🇩🇪 Germany | |
| 8 | Kaziranga National Park | 🇮🇳 India | |
| 9 | Cairngorms National Park | 🇬🇧 United Kingdom | |
| 10 | Gauja National Park | 🇱🇻 Latvia | |
| 11 | Namdapha National Park | 🇮🇳 India | |
| 12 | Chitwan National Park | 🇳🇵 Nepal |
| # | City | Country | Daily sighting probability |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Helsinki | 🇫🇮 Finland | |
| 2 | Nizhny Novgorod | 🇷🇺 Russia | |
| 3 | Belgrade | 🇷🇸 Serbia | |
| 4 | Seoul | 🇰🇷 South Korea | |
| 5 | Warsaw | 🇵🇱 Poland | |
| 6 | Kyiv | 🇺🇦 Ukraine | |
| 7 | Busan | 🇰🇷 South Korea | |
| 8 | Stockholm | 🇸🇪 Sweden | |
| 9 | Sapporo | 🇯🇵 Japan | |
| 10 | Copenhagen | 🇩🇰 Denmark |
Rare
Under 5% of wildlife watchers report a White-tailed Eagle sighting in Sapporo on a given day, based on 9 verified sightings from GBIF citizen-science data. It is the 58th most-seen of the 72 birds we can rate there. Over three days the chance rises to about 10%, and over a week to about 20%, if each day is a fresh chance.
January
In that month about 20% of wildlife watchers report a White-tailed Eagle in Sapporo on a given day, against under 5% in February to December, the lowest months.
Between 10 am and 1 pm
Across all the parks we cover, that three-hour window holds the most White-tailed Eagle sightings with a recorded time, and about 9 in 10 of them come between 6 am and 6 pm: it is a daytime animal.
9th of 16
Of the 16 cities where we can rate White-tailed Eagle sightings, Sapporo ranks 9th at under 5%. The best odds are in Helsinki (Finland, about 20%), Nizhny Novgorod (Russia, about 10%) and Belgrade (Serbia, about 10%).
GBIF citizen-science records
It is estimated from how often the White-tailed Eagle is recorded against all the birds logged in Sapporo (9 verified sightings), calibrated against known sighting rates. Figures are rounded to the nearest 10% because citizen-science data supports honest approximations, not decimals, and months with records from fewer than five people show "—". How it works.
