The white-tailed eagle (Haliaeetus albicilla), often called the sea eagle, is a large bird of prey found across temperate Eurasia. It belongs to the Accipitridae family, which includes hawks and kites, and is one of several species in the genus Haliaeetus.
While this eagle breeds from Greenland and Iceland to Hokkaido, Japan, its nesting populations are often scarce due to human activities such as habitat destruction, persecution from the early 1800s, and pollution from pesticides since the 1950s. As a result, it was once considered endangered or extinct in some areas, but populations have since rebounded thanks to conservation efforts and legal protections.
White-tailed eagles prefer large bodies of open water, coastal, and freshwater habitats, and need old trees or cliffs for nesting. They primarily feed on fish and waterbirds, functioning as both apex predators and opportunistic scavengers, similar to the bald eagle in North America.
