Birds: Steller's Sea-eagle
Range: northeastern Russian coast south to North Korea and Japan
Habitat: tree-lined open river plains and rocky coastlines
Steller's sea-eagle
Eagle of the sea
The Stellers sea-eagle is dark, impressive, and the largest of all sea eagles. It is a diurnal, fish-eating raptor that mainly eats salmon and trout. Like its other close relatives—harriers, kites, and goshawks—it uses its excellent sense of vision to help it find its prey. Despite its large size and attractive appearance, the habits of the Steller's sea-eagle are not well known.
Big birds
The Stellers sea-eagle is the heaviest known eagle, averaging 15 to 18 pounds (6.8 to 8 kilograms), and females can be 5 to 10 pounds (2 to 4 kilograms) larger than the males. Scientists believe that the eagles are "glacial relics" that evolved in the narrow subarctic zone of the northeast Asian coast and simply stayed there through multiple Ice Age cycles, never occurring anywhere else. Other northern sea eagles share the yellow legs, eyes, and beak of the Stellers, and they are large birds as well, which seems to support this theory.
Steller's sea-eagle flying
Hunting strategies
Stellers sea-eagles spend much of their day perched up high, their eyes on the lookout for food. Like bald eagles and brown bears, the eagles take full advantage of the annual salmon run to gorge themselves on the spawning and dying fish. Stellers sea-eagles are also known to hunt while flying and will take small mammals, fish, and seabirds by swooping down and catching them with their talons. These eagles have even been seen standing in shallow water or on the ice, grabbing fish as they swim by. Like other eagles, Stellers will also steal food from other birds; this is known as kleptoparasitism.
Eagles and humans
This vulnerable species is given complete legal protection in Russia, the only place it breeds, and in Japan, where it overwinters. In spite of these protections, human behavior continues to harm the remaining sea eagle population. In Russia, Stellers are losing their habitat because of the development of hydroelectric power projects and logging in the forested areas where they nest. And the rivers where the eagles fish are being contaminated by chemicals from local industries. In Japan, sea-eagles eat both fish and carrion. Overfishing by humans in Japanese waters has lead the eagles to scavenge on sika deer remains left by hunters. Eating carrion filled with lead shot from the hunters has had devastating effects on the eagle population, leading to the outlawing of lead ammunition on Hokkaido. As of 2006, the worlds population was estimated at 5,000 birds, but it is slowly decreasing.
Enormous Bird of prey (Eagle of some sort) with huge beak (from a distance) at the San Diego Zoo The Best Animals & Wildlife HD High Definition
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Philippine Eagle (Monkey-eating Eagle)by theorganicgardener6,642 views
Eagles r huge!!
priscillalopez2000 11 months ago