title: Lion Air

text: From 19 July 2011, Lion Air grounded 13 aircraft due to sanctions caused by bad on-time performance (OTP). The transportation ministry recorded that Lion Air's OTP of 66.45 percent was the worst of six airlines in an assessment conducted from January to April 2011 at 24 airports nationwide. On the other hand, airlines using Jakarta airport faced considerable delays to their schedules due to runway congestion.


title: Lion Air

text: On 18 November 2011, the airline jointly announced with Boeing a record-setting order of 201 Boeing 737 MAX and 29 Boeing 737-900ER aircraft, setting the record for the world's biggest single order of 230 aircraft for a commercial airline worth $21.7 billion.


title: Lion Air

text: In January 2012, the Transportation Ministry said that it sanctioned Lion Air because some of its pilots and crew members were found in recent months to be in possession of crystal methamphetamine. In late 2011 Muhammad Nasri and two other co-pilots were arrested at a party in Tangerang; in early 2012 a pilot was caught with crystal meth in Makassar.


title: Lion Air

text: On 4 February 2012, another Lion Air pilot was arrested following a positive urinalysis test for use of methamphetamine; he was scheduled to fly the Surabaya-Makassar-Balikpapan—Surabaya flight hours later. The licenses of the pilots and crew were revoked.


title: Lion Air

text: On 18 March 2013, Lion Air signed a contract to purchase 234 Airbus aircraft worth US$24 billion in France and witnessed directly by French President Francois Hollande. The ordered aircraft are types of A320 and A321.


title: Lion Air

text: Lion Air established a full service airline with the name Batik Air, which started operating in 2013 using 737-900ER. Lion Air also signed a commitment with Boeing to order five Boeing 787 Dreamliner for this airline, and this made Lion Air the first Indonesian airline to order this type since Garuda Indonesia canceled its order for the 10 Dreamliners in 2010, and is expected to be sent in 2015. The airline has also considered ordering wide-body aircraft Airbus A330, but chose to buy 787.


title: Lion Air

text: During the COVID-19 pandemic in Indonesia, Lion Group suspended operations until 1 June. It suspended operations again on 5 June after finding few passengers could provide documents proving they were virus-free and have a business reason or family emergency requiring travel. In July 2020, Lion Group announced that the airline will lay off 2,600 contract workers as demand continues to sharply decline.


title: Lion Air

text: The Boeing customer code for Lion Air is GP, which appears in the designation of its older Boeing aircraft as an infix, such as 737-8GP and 737-9GPER.


title: Lion Air

text: Lion Air was the launch customer for the largest variant of the Boeing 737, the 737-900ER, for which it placed an order in 2005. On the 2005 Paris Air Show, Lion Air signed a preliminary agreement with Boeing for the purchase of up to 60 Boeing 737 Next Generation aircraft, valued at $3.9 billion at list prices. Lion Air confirmed their order in July 2005 and became the launch customer for the Boeing 737-900ER with firm orders for 30 aircraft and options for 30 more, which were later converted into firm orders. The -900ER can carry up to 215 passengers in a single-class layout, and is powered by CFM56-7B turbofan engines. On 27 April 2007, Boeing delivered the first 737-900ER to Lion Air. The aircraft was delivered in a special dual-paint scheme that combines Lion Air's logo on its vertical stabilizer and the Boeing "Dreamliner" livery on the fuselage.


title: Lion Air

text: Lion Air set a world record when it placed an order for 230 aircraft from Boeing, making this the largest order in terms of aircraft ordered as well the cost of the order. In November 2011, Lion Air and Boeing announced that the airline planned to buy 29 additional Boeing 737 Next Generation and 201 Boeing 737 MAX aircraft, with options for 150 more, valued at $21.7 billion at the time. A firm order was signed on 14 February 2012, with the 737 MAX aircraft identified as 737 MAX 9s, making Lion Air the launch customer for that variant. By the time of the signing, the order's value had risen to $22.4 billion at list prices, the largest aircraft order in history. Additionally, the engines for the -900ERs, CFM 56-7s, cost about $580 million and the engines for the MAXs, CFM LEAP-1Bs, cost about $4.8 billion. Deliveries of the additional NGs were to start in 2014, with the MAXs to follow in 2017.


title: Lion Air

text: On Monday 18 March 2013 Lion Air placed an order for 234 A320 jets with Airbus, the largest single order ever made, surpassing the previous record by Boeing ($22.4 Billion). The contract, which was signed at the Elysée Palace in the presence of President François Hollande and several government ministers, was worth €18.4 billion ($24 billion) at catalogue prices, the French president said.


title: Lion Air

text: In April 2018 Lion Air Group placed an order for fifty Boeing 737 MAX 10 jets, valued at a list price of $6.24 billion.


title: Lion Air

text: However, following the crash of Flight 610 in October 2018, Lion Air announced that all Boeing orders would likely be cancelled. The statement was further reinforced following the crash of Ethiopian Airlines Flight 302, which eventually led to the worldwide grounding of all 737 MAX aircraft currently in service. In the days that followed after Flight 302's crash, Bloomberg News reported that Lion Air was evaluating options from Airbus, having already refused to take delivery of a 737 MAX that was going to be delivered in March 2019.


title: Lion Air

text: The airline received its first of 10 Airbus A330-900 aircraft on 19 July 2019, becoming the first Asia/Pacific operator of the type.


title: Lion Air

text: In the 2000s Lion Air began to grow and became a serious rival for Garuda Indonesia in domestic air travel in Indonesia. By mid 2015, Lion Air led Indonesia's domestic air travel market with 41.6 percent share, while Garuda Indonesia came in second with 23.5 percent share. Sriwijaya Air came in third with a market share of 10.4 percent, followed by Garuda's low-cost subsidiary Citilink (8.9 percent) and Lion Air's regional flight service Wings Air (4.7 percent). Indonesia AirAsia, a unit of Malaysian budget airline AirAsia, had a 4.4 percent market share.


title: Lion Air

text: Overall, Indonesian domestic air travel business is overwhelmingly ruled by two airline groups; Lion Air Group and Garuda Indonesia. By mid 2015, Lion Air Group accounted for 43.17 percent of market share, while Garuda Indonesia had 37.08 percent of market share.


title: Lion Air

text: From 2005 to 2017, the domestic market share of Lion Air Group increased by more than 100%, from 25% to 51%, while Garuda Indonesia's increased from 24% to 33%; their international market share in 2017 was 21% and 39% respectively, while Indonesia AirAsia / Indonesia AirAsia X had 36% of the international market.


title: 1999 NBA Finals

text: The 1999 NBA Finals was the championship round of the shortened 1998–99 NBA season, and the conclusion of the season's playoffs. The Western Conference champion San Antonio Spurs took on the Eastern Conference champion New York Knicks for the title, with the Spurs holding home court advantage. The Spurs defeated the Knicks 4 games to 1 to win their first NBA championship.


title: 1999 NBA Finals

text: The 1998-1999 NBA season was shortened due to a labor dispute that led to a lockout. The owners and the National Basketball Players Association reached an agreement to end the dispute on January 20, 1999. The 1998–99 season, which began on February 5, 1999, was shortened from the usual 82-game schedule to 50 games per team.


title: 1999 NBA Finals

text: The 1998–99 season was the second season of the "Twin Towers" pairing of David Robinson and star second-year forward Tim Duncan. Robinson and Duncan had been teammates since the Spurs drafted Duncan with the first overall pick in the 1997 NBA Draft. The Spurs earned this draft pick through the draft lottery due to a 62-loss 1996–97 season in which Robinson had a season-ending injury and the team collapsed. During the 1996–97 season, veteran coach Bob Hill was fired and replaced by then-general manager Gregg Popovich. In the 1997–98 season, the Spurs won 56 games, but were eliminated in the second round of the playoffs by the Utah Jazz.


title: 1999 NBA Finals

text: In the 1998–99 season, the Spurs recovered from a 6–8 start to the season to win 31 of their last 36 games. The Spurs qualified for the playoffs as the top seed in the Western Conference and tied the Utah Jazz for the league's best regular-season record (37-13).


title: 1999 NBA Finals

text: After defeating the Minnesota Timberwolves in four games, San Antonio recorded back-to-back sweeps in the second round and the conference finals, defeating the Los Angeles Lakers and Portland Trail Blazers. The victory over Portland gave the Spurs their first-ever trip to the NBA Finals.


title: 1999 NBA Finals

text: The Knicks had a more difficult time reaching the playoffs than the Spurs did. Toward the end of the season, with the team teetering on the brink of making the playoffs, New York fired general manager Ernie Grunfeld. The Knicks barely qualified for the playoffs and received the eighth and final seed in the Eastern Conference.


title: 1999 NBA Finals

text: The Knicks faced the Miami Heat, the top Eastern Conference seed, in the first round. When Allan Houston made a shot with 0.8 seconds remaining in Game 5 of that series, the Knicks were victorious and became the second team in NBA history after the Denver Nuggets to win a playoff series as the eighth seed.


title: 1999 NBA Finals

text: The Knicks faced the Atlanta Hawks next. Hawks center Dikembe Mutombo guaranteed a victory, but the Knicks prevailed in a four-game sweep to set up a matchup with the Indiana Pacers in the Eastern Conference Finals.


title: 1999 NBA Finals

text: Knicks center Patrick Ewing was lost for the series after the first two games against Indiana. In the third game, with 11.9 seconds left and the Knicks trailing 91–88, the Knicks' Larry Johnson made a three-point shot while being fouled and converted the subsequent free throw for a game-winning four-point play; the victory gave the Knicks a 2–1 lead in the series. The Knicks won Game 6 and prevailed in the series.


title: 1999 NBA Finals

text: The Spurs won the NBA Finals 4 games to 1. Spurs forward Tim Duncan was named the Most Valuable Player of the finals. On June 25 (two years to the day that Duncan was drafted by the Spurs), with 47 seconds to go in Game 5, Avery Johnson hit the game-winner. The Knicks scored 39 points in the second half, and Sprewell scored 25 of them, with fourteen of his points coming in the fourth quarter. However, he could not hit either of his couple of jump shots in the last half-minute of the game that could have affected the outcome. Tim Duncan scored 31 points and nine rebounds in the decisive Game 5 while averaging 27.4 points and fourteen rebounds with 2.4 assists and 2.2 blocks in the Finals.


title: 1999 NBA Finals

text: The Finals were played using a 2–3–2 site format, where the first two and last two games are held at the team with home court advantage. The NBA, after experimenting in the early years, restored this original format for the Finals between 1985 and 2013. In 2014, the Finals returned to a 2–2–1–1–1 site format.


title: 1999 NBA Finals

text: The 1999 NBA Finals was aired in the United States on NBC, with Bob Costas and Doug Collins on play-by-play and color commentary respectively. Hannah Storm served as the studio host while Isiah Thomas, Bill Walton and Peter Vecsey served as studio analysts. Ahmad Rashad and Jim Gray served as sideline reporters.


title: 1999 NBA Finals

text: Locally, the Finals also marked the comeback of Marv Albert following his infamous sex scandal two years prior. Albert served as the Knicks' radio play-by-play announcer on WFAN with long-time partner John Andariese. NBC Sports rehired Albert shortly after and he eventually returned to the lead play-by-play role in 2000.


title: 1999 NBA Finals

text: In 2000, the Spurs became the first NBA champion since the 1985–86 Celtics to fail to win a second consecutive title. The Spurs won 53 games in the 1999–2000 season, but were severely impaired by Sean Elliott's early season kidney transplant and Tim Duncan's late-season knee injury. The Spurs were eliminated in the first round of the 2000 NBA Playoffs by the Phoenix Suns. The team went on to win NBA titles in 2003, 2005, 2007 and 2014.


title: 1999 NBA Finals

text: , the 1999 NBA Finals remains the Knicks' last NBA Finals appearance. The following season, the Knicks won fifty games but fell to the Indiana Pacers in six games in the Eastern Conference Finals. After that season, the Patrick Ewing era came to an end when Ewing was traded to the SuperSonics. Over the fifteen ensuing post-Ewing seasons, the Knicks have been among the least successful NBA franchises, with only three winning seasons and one playoff series win.


title: Dave Allen (comedian)

text: David Tynan O'Mahony (6 July 193610 March 2005), known professionally as Dave Allen, was an Irish comedian, satirist, and actor. He was best known for his observational comedy. Allen regularly provoked indignation by highlighting political hypocrisy and showing disdain for religious authority. His technique and style have influenced young British comedians.


title: Dave Allen (comedian)

text: Initially becoming known in Australia in 1963 and 1964, Allen made regular television appearances in the United Kingdom from the late 1960s until the mid-1980s. The BBC aired his "Dave Allen Show" from 1971 to 1986, which was also exported to several other European countries. He had a major resurgence during the late 1980s and early 1990s. His television shows were also broadcast in the United States, Canada, Denmark, Sweden, Norway, Yugoslavia, Australia, and New Zealand.


title: Dave Allen (comedian)

text: David Tynan O'Mahony was born in the Firhouse suburb of Dublin on 6 July 1936, the son of an Irish father and English mother. His father, Gerard "Cully" Tynan O'Mahony, was the managing editor of "The Irish Times" and a nephew of writer Katharine Tynan. His mother, Jean Archer, was a housewife. He, his brothers, and their mother spent around 18 months living in Keenagh after leaving Dublin in the wake of the 1941 North Strand bombings: following this, they moved back to Dublin and lived at Cherryfield, a house located between Firhouse and Templeogue Bridge. He was educated at Newbridge College, Terenure College, and the Catholic University School. His father died when Allen was 12 years old, and his mother subsequently moved the family to England when he was 14.


title: Dave Allen (comedian)

text: Allen initially followed his father into journalism, firstly joining the "Drogheda Argus" as a copy boy, but at the age of 19 went to Fleet Street, London. He drifted through a series of jobs before becoming a Butlins Redcoat at Skegness in a troupe that also included British jazz trumpeter and writer John Chilton. At the end of each summer season, he did stand-up at strip clubs; for the next four years, he appeared in various night clubs, theatres, and working men's clubs. When entertainment work was slow, he worked at a toy shop in Sheffield and as a door-to-door salesman of draught excluders. He changed his stage surname to "Allen" at the behest of his agent, who believed that few people in the UK could pronounce "O'Mahony" correctly. Allen agreed to the change because he hoped that a surname beginning with "A" would put him at the top of agents' lists.


title: Dave Allen (comedian)

text: Allen lost the top of his left index finger above the middle knuckle after catching it in a machine cog. However, he enjoyed inventing stories to explain the loss, which became a minor part of his act. One version was that his brother John had surprised him by snapping his jaw shut when they were children. A further explanation he gave on his programme, "Dave Allen at Large", was that he often stuck his finger in his whiskey glass and it had been eaten away by strong drink. He also said it was worn away from repeatedly brushing the dust from his suit. One of his stand-up jokes was that, as a boy, he and his friends would go to see a cowboy movie at the local cinema, then come out ready to play Cowboys and Indians. Staring down at his truncated finger, he would mutter, "I had a sawn-off shotgun." On his show he told a long, elaborate ghost story, ending with "something evil" attacking him in a dark and haunted house. Allen grabbed and bit the attacker, the studio lights came back up, and it was his own left hand.


title: Dave Allen (comedian)

text: Allen's first television appearance was on the BBC talent show "New Faces" in 1959. He hosted pop music shows in the early 1960s, including tours by Adam Faith and Helen Shapiro, and in early 1963 was the compere of a tour of Britain, headlined by Shapiro that also included The Beatles. In 1962 he toured South Africa with American vaudeville star Sophie Tucker, whom he described as "one of the most charming and delightful performers with whom I have ever worked". Tucker was impressed with him and suggested that he try his luck in Australia. Moving there, he worked with Digby Wolfe on Australian television, becoming Wolfe's resident comedian.


title: Dave Allen (comedian)

text: While on tour in Australia in 1963, he accepted an offer to headline a television talk show for Channel 9, "Tonight with Dave Allen", which was successful. However, only six months after his television début he was banned from the Australian airwaves when, during a live broadcast, he told his show's producer—who had been pressing him to go to a commercial break—to "go away and masturbate", so that he could continue an entertaining interview with Peter Cook and Dudley Moore. The ban was quietly dropped as Allen's popularity continued unabated.


title: Dave Allen (comedian)

text: Allen returned to the United Kingdom in 1964 and made a number of appearances on ITV, including "The Blackpool Show" and "Val Parnell's Sunday Night at the London Palladium", and on the BBC on "The Val Doonican Show". In 1967, he hosted his own comedy/chat series, "Tonight with Dave Allen", made by ATV, for which he received the Variety Club's ITV Personality of the Year Award.


title: Dave Allen (comedian)

text: He signed with the BBC in 1968 and appeared on "The Dave Allen Show", a variety/comedy sketch series. This was followed from 1971 to 1979 by "Dave Allen at Large". The theme tune for "The Dave Allen Show" and "Dave Allen at Large", written by Alan Hawkshaw, was titled "Blarney's Stoned" (originally recorded for KPM in 1969 under the title "Studio 69").


title: Dave Allen (comedian)

text: The shows introduced his solo joke-telling-while-sitting-on-a-stool-and-drinking routine. This stand-up routine by Allen led to sketches that continued the themes touched on in the preceding monologues. Meanwhile, he sought theatre roles. In 1972, he acted as a doctor in the Royal Court's production of Edna O'Brien's play "A Pagan Place". With family friend Maggie Smith in the lead, he appeared in "Peter Pan" in a run during 1973 and 1974. Allen played the roles of Mr Darling and Captain Hook in the production at the London Coliseum. Allen made "The Dave Allen Show in Australia" (1975–1977) for his old employers, Channel 9.


title: Dave Allen (comedian)

text: Allen was also a social commentator, appearing in several television documentaries for ITV, beginning with "Dave Allen in the Melting Pot" (1969), looking at life in New York City and dealing with issues such as racism and drugs. Later programmes included "Dave Allen in Search of the Great English Eccentric" (1974) and "Eccentrics at Play" (1974), in which he looked at colourful characters with idiosyncratic passions.


title: Dave Allen (comedian)

text: Allen's satirising of religious ritual, especially Catholic ones, throughout each episode of "Dave Allen at Large" caused minor controversy, which – coupled with sometimes comparatively frank material – earned the show a risqué reputation. In 1977, the Irish state broadcaster RTÉ placed a "de facto" ban on Allen, however he did make appearances on "The Late Late Show" being interviewed by Gay Byrne. Routines included sketches showing the pope (played by Allen) and his cardinals doing a striptease to music ("The Stripper") on the steps of St Peter's, aggressive priests beating their parishioners and each other, priests who spoke like Daleks through electronic confessionals, and an extremely excitable pope who spoke in a Chico Marx style accent as he ordered Allen to "getta your bum outta Roma!" In 1979, he played a troubled property man suffering a mid-life crisis in Alan Bennett's television play "One Fine Day". New seasons of the comedy series, now titled "Dave Allen", were broadcast from 1981 until 1990.


title: Dave Allen (comedian)

text: This prompted MP Robert Hayward to ask a parliamentary question about "offensive language" in broadcasting. In 1993, Allen returned to ITV, where he starred in the "Dave Allen Show", which was his final regular television series.


title: Dave Allen (comedian)

text: By the late 1990s, Allen was living quietly in semi-retirement at his family home in Holland Park, west London. He had given up cigarettes in the 1980s, having smoked regularly during earlier television appearances. A comedy skit in 1994 talked not only about quitting smoking but hating the smell of smoke. The 1990s saw him make occasional chat show appearances and discuss his career in the six-part "The Unique Dave Allen" (BBC, 1998), in between clips from his past BBC series.


title: Dave Allen (comedian)

text: As he grew older, Allen brought a rueful awareness of aging to his material, with reflections on the antics of teenagers and the sagging skin and sprouting facial hair of age. He was presented with a lifetime achievement award at the British Comedy Awards in 1996.


title: Dave Allen (comedian)

text: Allen's act was typified by a relaxed, rueful, and intimate style. He sat on a high bar stool facing his audience, smoking and occasionally sipping from a glass of what he always allowed people to assume was whiskey but in fact was merely ginger ale with ice. He was a sober-minded man, and although he sometimes appeared crotchety and irritable on stage he always gave off an air of charm and serene melancholy, both in his act and in real life. Each day he pored over newspapers, scribbling notes and ideas for his routines. Along with his seated stand-up routines, his television shows were interspersed with filmed sketch comedy.


title: Dave Allen (comedian)

text: Allen was a religious sceptic. He once said he was "what you might call a practising atheist" and often joked, "I'm an atheist, thank God." His scepticism came as a result of his deeply held objections to the rigidity of his strict Catholic schooling. Consequently, religion became an important subject for his humour, especially the Catholic Church and the Church of England, generally mocking church customs and rituals rather than beliefs. In 1998 he explained:


title: Dave Allen (comedian)

text: At the end of his act, Allen always signed off with the words "Goodnight, thank you, and may your God go with you."


title: Dave Allen (comedian)

text: Allen married English actress Judith Stott in 1964. The couple had a daughter, Jane (born 1965), and a son, Edward James Tynan O'Mahony (born 1968), who later became a comedian under the name Ed Allen. He was also the stepfather of Stott's son Jonathan. The marriage ended in divorce in 1983.


title: Dave Allen (comedian)

text: Allen began dating Karin Stark in 1986, and married her in 2003. The couple had a son, Cullen, who was born three weeks after Allen's death.


title: Dave Allen (comedian)

text: Allen's hobbies included painting, about which he became increasingly enthusiastic in his later years. His first exhibition, "Private Views", was held in Edinburgh in 2001.


title: Dave Allen (comedian)

text: On 10 March 2005, at the age of 68, Allen died peacefully in his sleep as a result of sudden arrhythmic death syndrome at his home in Kensington, London. He was survived by his wife and children.


title: Dave Allen (comedian)

text: Highly regarded in Britain, Allen's comic technique and style had a lasting influence on many young British comedians. His targets were often figures of authority, his style was observational rather than gag-driven, and his language frequently ripe; as such he was a progenitor for the "alternative" comedians of the 1980s. Stewart Lee has cited Allen as an influence.


title: Dave Allen (comedian)

text: In his native Ireland, he always remained somewhat controversial. His mocking of the Catholic Church made him unpopular amongst some Irish Catholics, while his mocking of the Ulster Protestant leader Ian Paisley made him unpopular amongst many Protestants in Northern Ireland.


title: Dave Allen (comedian)

text: In a 2017 interview with Howard Stern, Adam Sandler cited Allen as one of his first comedic influences when he saw his act at the Nevele hotel at the age of 10.


title: Dave Allen (comedian)

text: A dramatisation of Allen's life and career, entitled "Dave Allen At Peace", was shown on RTÉ One and BBC Two in 2018, with Aidan Gillen portraying Allen.


title: Philip Oakey

text: Philip Oakey (born 2 October 1955) is a British singer, songwriter and record producer. He is best known as the lead singer, songwriter, and cofounder of British synth-pop band the Human League. Aside from the Human League, Oakey has enjoyed an extensive solo music career and has collaborated with numerous other artists and producers.


title: Philip Oakey

text: Oakey was among the most visually distinctive music artists of the early 1980s. At the height of their success, the Human League released the triple platinum-certified album "Dare" and Oakey cowrote and sang the multimillion-selling single "Don't You Want Me," a #1 single in both the U.S. and UK, where it remains the 28th-highest-selling single of all time. Oakey has been lead singer of the Human League for more than 40 years. With the band, he has sold more than 20 million records worldwide. He continues recording and performing internationally.


title: Philip Oakey

text: Oakey was born on 2 October 1955 in Hinckley, Leicestershire. His father worked for the General Post Office and moved jobs regularly: the family moved to Coventry when Oakey was an infant, to Leeds when he was five and to Birmingham when he was nine, attending Catherine-de-Barnes primary school near Solihull and gaining a scholarship to the independent Solihull School. He settled in Sheffield when he was 14. He was educated at King Edward VII School in Sheffield. He left school at 18 without finishing his exams and worked in a number of casual jobs, including one in a university bookshop and as a porter at Thornbury Annex Hospital in Sheffield in 1977. In 1978, Oakey married his girlfriend Anthea Helliwell, whom he had met at school, but the marriage ended in divorce in 1980.


title: Philip Oakey

text: Oakey's entry into music in 1977 was unintentional. He had purchased a saxophone but had abandoned efforts to learn how to play it, and he had no aspiration to be in a pop group.


title: Philip Oakey

text: In Sheffield in 1977, Oakey's former schoolmate Martyn Ware, along with Ian Craig Marsh and Adi Newton, had formed a band called the Future. They were part of an emerging genre of music that used analogue synthesisers instead of traditional instruments, a style later to be termed synth-pop. Although they had recorded a number of demo tapes, the Future remained unsigned. Newton departed the band after they were rejected by record companies. Ware decided that the Future needed a dedicated lead singer to replace Newton. His first choice, Glenn Gregory, was unavailable, so Ware suggested Oakey to Marsh. Although Oakey had little music experience, he was well known in the Sheffield social scene for his eclectic dress sense and classic motorcycle. Ware invited Oakey to join the Future by leaving a note on Oakey's front door. Oakey joined the band in mid-1977.


title: Philip Oakey

text: In late 1977, the Future changed its name to the Human League, named after an element of a The new band played their first live gig at Psalter Lane Arts College in June 1978 (a blue plaque now marks the spot) and signed to Fast Records. The early Human League had a reputation for being arty and enjoyed very little commercial success, releasing two singles, "Being Boiled" and "Empire State Human," with lyrics written by Oakey. They would eventually release two albums, "Reproduction" (1979) and "Travelogue" (1980), both recorded at the band's Monumental Pictures studio. "Reproduction" failed to chart, but after an impromptu appearance on "Top of the Pops" in May 1980, "Travelogue" entered the UK Album Chart and peaked at #16. Despite this, the band still had no hit singles and, dogged by the lack of commercial success, Oakey and Ware's working relationship became increasingly strained. During the autumn of 1980, on the eve of a European tour, the tension reached a breaking point and Ware departed, taking Marsh along. Oakey and director of visuals Adrian Wright were permitted to retain the band name but would be responsible for all band debts and the tour commitment. Ware and Marsh soon recruited Glenn Gregory and became Heaven 17.


title: Philip Oakey

text: Facing financial ruin with the tour promoters threatening to sue him, Oakey had less than a week to assemble a new band. In an unplanned move, Oakey visited a Sheffield city-centre discothèque called The Crazy Daisy and recruited two teenage girls whom he saw dancing there, Susan Ann Sulley and Joanne Catherall, to join the band. Oakey had noticed them for their dance moves, dress style and makeup. They were already fans of the Human League and recognised Oakey. He now calls this the best decision of his career, as the girls would be critical in the band's further success, and Sulley and Catherall became Oakey's business partners in the present-day band.


title: Philip Oakey

text: After the tour, the band had their first UK Top 20 hit, "The Sound of the Crowd," in April 1981. Now with the addition of Jo Callis and Ian Burden, the band became a six-piece and went on to release the single "Love Action (I Believe In Love)," which became a #3 hit in the UK. This was followed by "Open Your Heart," which also reached the top 10. Soon afterward they released a full album, "Dare", mostly written by Oakey. "Dare" would soon become a #1 album in the UK and achieve multi-platinum status. At the end of 1981, the fourth and final single from the album, "Don't You Want Me," provided the band with their first #1 single and would sell more than 1.5 million units in the UK, remaining at #1 for five weeks. It also topped the chart in the U.S. the following year, selling another million copies there. By the end of 1981/82 Oakey and the Human League would be famous worldwide.


title: Philip Oakey

text: The remainder of the 1980s saw the band's success peak and dip, with the follow-up release of the album "Hysteria" in 1984 underachieving. In 1986, Oakey accepted an offer to work with American producers Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis, which resulted in the release of the album "Crash" and the single "Human," which became another international hit and reached #1 in the U.S. However, by 1987, the band had lost most of its members, leaving only Oakey, Sulley and Catherall. In 1989, Oakey persuaded Sheffield City Council to grant a business development loan for the building of Human League Studios in Sheffield, Oakey's dedicated studio for the band and a commercial venture.


title: Philip Oakey

text: The 1990 album "Romantic?" underperformed commercially, peaking at #24 in the UK and in 1992, Virgin Records cancelled the band's recording contract. This had a devastating effect on the band, causing Oakey to seek counselling for depression and Sulley to have a breakdown. Oakey recalled in 1995: "We watched "Romantic" disappear without a trace. Gone, gone into the past with all you've hoped for. […] About that time, I think, I had a low-grade nervous breakdown." Oakey's and Sulley's emotional problems nearly caused the band to dissolve. Thanks mainly to the efforts of Catherall, by 1993 Oakey and Sulley had recovered and the band signed to East West Records, followed by the release of the gold-selling album "Octopus" in 1995 and the hit singles "Tell Me When" and "One Man in My Heart."


title: Philip Oakey

text: Another change of record label saw the release of the critically acclaimed "Secrets" album in 2001. "Secrets" failed to sell because the record label went into receivership, curtailing promotion. After the failure of the project, Oakey lost faith in the record industry and changed the band's focus to more lucrative live work. Since 2002, they have toured regularly and played at festivals such as V Festival and Festival Internacional de Benicàssim, as well as in front of 18,000 fans at the Hollywood Bowl in Los Angeles in 2006.


title: Philip Oakey

text: In 2011, the band released a new album, "Credo". Though the album was commercially unsuccessful, the band continues to tour regularly.


title: Philip Oakey

text: Oakey has worked solo and also with other artists and producers. His first collaboration was producing the Spanish-released single "Amor Secreto" by Nick Fury in 1983 for which he also played synthesiser, together with Jo Callis.


title: Philip Oakey

text: His most commercially successful collaboration was with producer Giorgio Moroder. In 1984 for the film "Electric Dreams", he and Moroder provided the film theme song, "Together in Electric Dreams." When later released as a single. it became an international hit, more successful than some of Oakey's Human League singles of the same period.


title: Philip Oakey

text: In 1985, Oakey and Moroder released the joint album "Philip Oakey & Giorgio Moroder", which generated two further single releases, "Be My Lover Now" and "Good-Bye Bad Times." Released in both the UK and US, these singles were not as successful as "Together in Electric Dreams" and the Oakey/Moroder partnership effectively ended.


title: Philip Oakey

text: In 1990, Oakey provided guest vocals on "What Comes After Goodbye," the one-off release by the short-lived Sheffield dance band Respect.


title: Philip Oakey

text: In 1999, Oakey provided vocals for the single "1st Man in Space" by the Sheffield band All Seeing I. The song was written by Jarvis Cocker.


title: Philip Oakey

text: In 2003, Oakey provided vocals for Sheffield band Kings Have Long Arms on the single "Rock and Roll Is Dead" and worked with producer/DJ Alex Gold for the trance single "LA Today."


title: Philip Oakey

text: In 2008, Oakey worked with Hiem, a band fronted by former All Seeing I lead singer David "Bozz" Boswell, for the song "2 am."


title: Philip Oakey

text: In early 2009, Oakey collaborated with the Pet Shop Boys on their tenth studio album "Yes", supplying vocals for the intended bonus-disc song "This Used to Be the Future." Also in 2009, Oakey collaborated with British female synthpop artist Little Boots on her first album, "Hands", recording the duet track "Symmetry."


title: Philip Oakey

text: Throughout his career and in his personal life, Oakey has been a flamboyant dresser and fashion trendsetter. His outrageous dress sense and original hairstyle would make him an iconic figure of the early 1980s music scene.


title: Philip Oakey

text: Before 1977, during the era of punk rock, Oakey adopted various styles; at one time having a crew cut, he later had collar-length hair and once appeared in a club wearing a household power lead with a plug as a necklace. He also often wore bike leathers and rode a classic Norton motorcycle around Sheffield. Ware, who also sought commercial success, noted that "Oakey already looked like a pop star."


title: Philip Oakey

text: Soon after the Future transformed into the Human League, Oakey wanted a look that would make him stand out from other lead singers. After spotting a girl on a Sheffield bus with a Veronica Lake hairstyle, he was inspired to adopt a lopsided geometric hairstyle, shoulder length on one side and short on the other. Between 1978 and 1979 with his unique hairstyle, he maintained a masculine dress style and at one time wore a full beard.


title: Philip Oakey

text: In 1979, inspired by the 1970s glam rock style of Brian Eno, Oakey began wearing makeup. His style became increasingly more feminine, including the use of bright red lipstick.


title: Philip Oakey

text: By 1981, after the formation of the new Human League, Oakey's trademark style of the early 1980s was complete. Along with full makeup, Oakey had begun wearing androgynous clothing. The 1980 addition of teenage schoolgirls Susan Ann Sulley and Joanne Catherall to the band complemented his look. At times, all three would wear the same eyeliner and lipstick. Oakey and Catherall, who were to enter into a romantic relationship, often looked and dressed almost identically.


title: Philip Oakey

text: The media regularly commented and joked about Oakey's style. He pushed his style further and began wearing high-heeled shoes. He already had both his ears pierced and wore dangling women's diamante earrings. On a 1981 poster, Oakey posed shirtless with pierced nipples linked by a gold chain. Oakey says of his early-1980s style: "I deliberately wore clothes that either men or women could wear. But I don't think I ever really looked like a woman. And I never wore very masculine clothes."<ref name="The Scotsman 15/11/2008"></ref>


title: Philip Oakey

text: Oakey also appeared in public in full makeup, dressed in his eclectic style. He states that "Sheffield was so accepting that no one ever blinked an eyelid."


title: Philip Oakey

text: By 1983, Oakey wanted to change his androgynous look. He adopted a more macho image of denim, collar-length hair and "designer stubble."


title: Philip Oakey

text: At the time of the 1986 "Crash" album, Oakey wore designer clothes and a manicured look that was inspired by Sean Young's character in the film "Blade Runner".


title: Philip Oakey

text: By 1990, the Human League had begun to decline. For the "Romantic?" album, Oakey wore denim and leather and readopted his lopsided hairstyle from 1981 in a rebellion against "the male model look of "Crash"." The band went through dark times and the style was quickly abandoned.


title: Philip Oakey

text: When the band returned in 1995, Oakey, approaching the age of 40, appeared with designer clothes and a suave, short, neat haircut. He generally wears a simple Armani suit on the stage.


title: Philip Oakey

text: In 1999, after beginning to develop male pattern baldness, Oakey adopted an all-over "number two" crop hairstyle that he continues to wear.


title: Philip Oakey

text: Oakey has a Prince Albert piercing. In 2007, he said, "Yes, I have a Prince Albert ring. I had it done about six years ago. It didn't hurt too much ... when I pierced my ear it hurt more!"


title: Philip Oakey

text: Oakey deliberately does not have an official website, not wanting to do what others do, and apparently believing it is expensive to have one.


title: White-tailed eagle

text: The white-tailed eagle (Haliaeetus albicilla) is a very large species of sea eagle widely distributed across temperate Eurasia. Like all eagles, it is a member of the family Accipitridae (or accipitrids) which 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.


title: White-tailed eagle

text: While found across a very wide range, today breeding as far west as Greenland and Iceland across to as far east as Hokkaido, Japan, they are often scarce and very spottily distributed as a nesting species, mainly due to human activities. These have included habitat alterations and destruction of wetlands, about a hundred years of systematic persecution by humans (from the early 1800s to around World War II) followed by inadvertent poisonings and epidemics of nesting failures due to various manmade chemical pesticides and organic compounds, which have threatened eagles since roughly the 1950s and continue to be a potential concern. Due to this, the white-tailed eagle was considered endangered or extinct in several countries. However, some populations have recovered well due to some governmental protections and dedicated conservationists and naturalists protecting habitats and nesting sites and partially regulating poaching and pesticide usage, as well as careful reintroductions into parts of their former range.


title: White-tailed eagle

text: White-tailed eagles usually 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) amongst nearly any other available prey. Both a powerful apex predator and an opportunistic scavenger, it is considered a close cousin of the bald eagle ("Haliaeetus leucocephalus"), which occupies a similar niche in North America.


title: White-tailed eagle

text: The first formal description of the white-tailed eagle was by the Swedish naturalist Carl Linnaeus in 1758 in the tenth edition of his "Systema Naturae" under the binomial name "Falco albicilla". The genus "Haliaeetus" was introduced in 1809 by the French naturalist Marie Jules César Savigny in the "Description de l'Égypte". The name "Haliaeetus" is New Latin for "sea-eagle", from Ancient Greek "hali-", "sea-" and "aetos", "eagle". The specific "albicilla", "white-tailed", is from New Latin "albi-", "white" and "cilla", "tail". The Anglo-Saxon name "erne" means "soarer", and it is cognate to Swedish "örn" and Finnish "aarni". It has many Gaelic names, including "iolar sùil na grèine" or 'eagle of the sun's eye.'


title: White-tailed eagle

text: The white-tailed eagle is a member of the genus "Haliaeetus", a monophylic group comprising 11 living species, including the closely related "Ichthyophaga" fish eagles which may or may not be part of a separate genus. The latter group, comprised by the lesser ("Haliaeetus humilis") and the grey-headed fish eagle ("Haliaeetus ichthyaetus"), differ mostly in life history, being more fully devoted to fish eating and habituating wooded areas, especially in mountainous areas. In appearance the two "Ichthyaetus" are slenderer, longer tailed and more uniform and grey in colour than typical sea eagles. This species pair may not be genetically distinct enough to warrant division into separate genera. Other than these "Ichthyophaga"-type species found farther north in Asia, Sanford's sea eagle ("Haliaeetus sanfordi") of the Solomon Islands is the most atypical "Haliaeetus", retaining rufous-brown plumage into adulthood (this particularly resembling the white-bellied sea eagle juvenile, likely a closely related species) more typical of juveniles in other species and it also dwells more so in dense, coastal forests where it feeds mostly on birds and mammals rather than fish and water birds.


title: White-tailed eagle

text: Outside of the genus "Haliaeetus", among other extant forms, they appear to be most closely related to milvine kites and Old World vultures, based on modern forms from these subfamilies that broadly share morphological and life history traits with sea eagles: the Brahminy kite ("Haliastur indus") (historically sometimes referred to as the "red-backed sea eagle") and the palm-nut vulture ("Gypohierax angolensis") (which was once widely referred to as the "vulturine fish eagle"). The relation of these species to the sea eagles is partially borne out by their genetic sequencing. Other groups, beyond milvine kites and Old World vulture, of modern accipitrid that are seemingly in some way related, albeit very distantly, to the sea eagles include "Accipiters", harriers, chanting-goshawks and buteonines. Notably excluded from their relations are most other species referred to as "eagles", including booted eagles and snake and serpent eagles.


title: White-tailed eagle

text: The white-tailed eagle itself forms a species pair with the bald eagle. These diverged from other sea eagles at the beginning of the early Miocene (c. 10 mya) at the latest, possibly (if the most ancient fossil record is correctly assigned to this genus) as early as the early or middle Oligocene, about 28 mya. A recent genetic study of mitochondrial DNA is consistent with this idea. Greenlandic white-tailed eagles (proposed as "H. a. groenlandicus") form, on evolutionary time scales, a relatively recently founded population that has not yet accumulated many unique genetic characteristics and may not strictly fulfill the distinction of a subspecies. However, the population appears to be demographically isolated and deserves special protection. At one time an eastern subspecies ("H. a. brooksi") was proposed as well but there is little evidence supporting this as more than a case of clinal variation in coloring and size (i.e. the eastern average slightly darker and smaller than more westerly ones). As in other sea-eagle species pairs, this one consists of a white-headed (the bald eagle) and a tan-headed species. They probably diverged in the North Pacific, spreading westwards into Eurasia and eastwards into North America. Like the third large northern species, Steller's sea eagle ("Haliaeetus pelagicus"), adults have yellow feet, beaks and eyes. Another species, likely intermediate between the white-tailed, bald and Steller's sea eagles and the "Ichthyophaga" type fish eagles, is the Pallas's fish eagle ("Haliaeetus leucoryphus"), which in life history seems to range farther from water and to higher elevations than the three northern species normally do. Due to the similar dietary and nesting habits of sea eagles, they are mostly allopatric in distribution as competition can be considerable between these eagles.


title: White-tailed eagle

text: Currently, eagles occur in the Hawaiian Islands only as vagrants, but Quaternary bones of "Haliaeetus" have been found on three of the major islands. An ancient DNA study published in 2015 characterized the rapidly evolving mitochondrial control region of one of these specimens. DNA from a ∼3,500-year-old sea eagle skeleton found in a lava cave on Maui was sequenced. Phylogenetic analyses suggested that the Hawaiian eagle represents a distinct (>3% divergent) mtDNA lineage that is most closely related to extant white-tailed eagles. Based on fossil calibration, the Hawaiian mtDNA lineage probably diverged around the Middle Pleistocene. Thus, although not clearly differentiated in morphology from its relatives, the Hawaiian eagle likely represented an isolated, resident population in the Hawaiian archipelago for more than 100,000 years, where it was the largest terrestrial predator. The reasons for its extinction are unknown.


title: White-tailed eagle

text: The white-tailed eagle is one of the largest living birds of prey. It is the largest of the dozen species of eagle found in Europe and the largest eagle across its distribution, excluding the Russian Far East and (during the winter) Hokkaido, Japan, where it co-exists with its larger cousin, Steller's sea eagle. The white-tailed eagle is sometimes considered the fourth largest eagle in the world and is, on average, the fourth heaviest eagle in the world. The only extant eagle species known to be more massive in mean bulk are the Steller's sea eagle ("Haliaeetus pelagicus"), the harpy eagle ("Harpia harpyja") and the Philippine eagle ("Pithecophaga jefferyi"). The white-tailed eagle measures anywhere from in total length with a typical wingspan of . This species may have the largest wingspan of any living eagle. The Steller's sea eagle, which is larger in weight, total length and non-wing standard measurements, may be the closest rival for median wingspan amongst living eagles. Average wingspans are not known for the Steller's species, however white-tailed eagles do appear to outsize the average wingspan of the wedge-tailed eagle ("Aquila audax"), which is sometimes also titled the largest winged extant eagle (however one wedge-tail did possess the largest wingspan ever verified for an extant eagle).


title: White-tailed eagle

text: In one sample from Norway, five male white-tailed eagles were found to average and eight females were found to average . In another sample of wild birds of unspecified origin, five males were found to average and seven females averaged . Record wingspans have included a specimen from Greenland which measured while another specimen apparently spanned . The bald eagle broadly overlaps in size with the white-tailed eagle. In direct comparison, the white-tailed eagle averages somewhat larger in body mass than the bald eagle and may be marginally larger in bill and talon size, although these linear aspects can be quite similar between the two species. The white-tailed eagle does have a significantly larger wing chord and average wingspan than the bald eagle, but the latter usually possesses a longer tail, resulting in a larger total length than the white-tailed eagle and a larger mean tarsal length.


title: White-tailed eagle

text: Size variation is generally a clinal trend and is normally quantified using standard measurements such as wing, tail and tarsal length, or body mass, rather than wingspan or total length. As expected for many widely distributed animals of varied lineages, the white-tailed eagle conforms to Bergmann's rule in that more northerly birds tend to outsize those found relatively closer to the Equator. Average size also decreases from west to east across its distribution. The largest white-tailed eagles appear to be found in Greenland, these being slightly larger than those from Scotland and Scandinavia and notably larger than eagles from central Europe, especially in proportions of the wing area. Those from the southerly portions of the breeding range, such as Asia Minor (principally Turkey), southern Kazakhstan, and Korea Bay, appear to be the smallest-bodied population but there have been limited measurements and published weights known for these extremely sporadic and rare Asian populations of eagle. Furthermore, weights of fully grown eagles from Greenland are not known. Unlike many accipitrids, juvenile white-tailed eagles (and seemingly other sea eagles as well) are often of similar weight to the adults, although the juveniles typically have a somewhat larger average wing and tail length than the adults. In the white-tailed eagle, body mass can typically range from in females. The slightly smaller male may typically weigh from .


title: White-tailed eagle

text: Average weights in European white-tailed eagles can range from in five males and in nine females to (from the reintroduced birds of Scotland of Norwegian stock) in 39 males and in 43 females. In comparison, the weight ranges for white-tailed eagles from Northeast China were claimed to be only in males and in females. The heaviest female white-tailed eagles can apparently weigh as much as and even males can sometimes weigh up to , which would make the largest males perhaps the heaviest recorded modern male eagle, as male harpy and Philippine eagles (being more sexually dimorphic in favor of the female) are not known to exceed (the highest weights for male Steller's sea eagle are not known). The global mean body mass of white-tailed eagles is estimated at approximately . The average female Steller's sea eagle may weigh just under 25% more than the average female white-tailed eagle (the average weight of male Steller's is not known) while the average European golden eagle may weigh about 11–12% less than the average European white-tailed eagle and the bald eagle species as a whole about 10% less than the white-tailed eagle species.


title: White-tailed eagle

text: The most reliable method to sex birds is by tarsus width and depth and bill depth but these are infrequently measured. In some cases females are as much as 25% heavier and 15% greater in linear dimensions, though the sexes are rarely this discrepant in standard measurements. Among standard measurements, the wing chord is in males, averaging in European adults and juveniles, respectively, and in Greenland males. In females, the wing chord may measure , averaging in European adults and juveniles, respectively, and in Greenland females. Adult tail length is in males, averaging , and in females, averaging . Juvenile tail lengths can reach roughly in both sexes, however. The tarsus is , averaging .


title: White-tailed eagle

text: In terms of their killing apparatuses, their hallux claw, the largest talon on all accipitrids, is in length, averaging . The hallux claw averages about a centimeter less than that of a golden eagle and is more sharply curved, an adaptation to prevent escape of slippery prey such as fish, while that of a bald eagle is similarly about and of similar curvature. The exposed culmen is typically large as in all "Haliaeetus", ranging from , with an average of . The average culmen length of the bald eagle is , thus averaging slightly smaller. However, the average culmen length in the large bald eagles of Alaska is considerably larger than other bald eagles as well as most white-tailed eagles at up to and can even rival the length (but perhaps not the girth) of the truly massive bill of the Steller's sea eagle.


title: White-tailed eagle

text: The adult white-tailed eagle is a greyish mid-brown color overall. The plumage is fairly uniform over most of the body and wings, but the upper wing coverts are typically somewhat paler. In the adult, the head, neck and upper breast have a distinctly paler appearance than the rest of the plumage and most often have a buff coloration. In worn or bleached plumages these light areas can be even paler at times, ranging to almost whitish, which can render a resemblance in such eagles to a washed-out bald eagle. Some of the palest birds can appear anywhere from cream-tawny to light grayish. It is thought that in some populations perhaps paleness increases with age, although it is possible that there is an historical genetic factor to these pale variations. In contrast, some adults can also be a richer, more deeply dark brown (or somewhat rufescent) than average with perhaps a mild increase in average darkness of hue to the east of the species' range. When many of the feathers are freshly molted, they can take on a slight purplish gloss. The brownish hue of the adult overall makes the somewhat wedge-shaped white tail stand out in contrast. All the bare parts of the adult's body are yellow in color, including the bill, cere, feet and eyes. Juvenile and immature white-tailed eagles are a much darker brown than the adults and are more unevenly marked, with whitish feather edgings variably showing, mostly manifesting in some small areas of the underside and under-wing, with a narrow white axillary strip usually apparent.


title: White-tailed eagle

text: The upperside is usually similarly darkish brown but variable based on extent of blackish-brown tip to otherwise buff-brown feathers of the mantle, back and upper wing. The head of the juvenile is normally a blackish-brown hue, somewhat darker and always more uniform than most of the other feathers. The juvenile's tail tends to be a washed out greyish-cream color with messy blackish color on the feather edges and on the tips. Some individual juveniles may exhibit some faint barring on the tail while others may appear largely dirty whitish on the tail. The bill of juveniles is usually almost half dark brown from the tip and half dirty, dull yellowish or gray to the base, while the feet are usually a dirty yellow and the eyes are a darkish brown. Juvenile males may average a slightly darker brown plumage with less speckling on the upper body than like-age females; their head and neck plumes may also appear shorter, which can accentuate the slighter, more angular skull possessed by males. In disposition, the male juveniles are said to be more highly strung and higher voiced than their female counterparts.


title: White-tailed eagle

text: The head gradually grows paler over several years. The whitish mottling may increase on the upperparts, belly and especially on the underwing area later into their third year (considered the first subadult plumage) and subadult birds can appear fairly blotched with white but much individual variation in coloring is known at this age. However, this white mottling then fades late into the fourth year and the plumage becomes less contrasting. Although sexual maturity is considered to be attained at between five and six years of age, usually the fully white tail and the uniform pale head and neck are not obtained until the eighth year. Juveniles first molt in May/June until October/November at just over one year of age. Their second molt is the following year in March or April, with two more subsequent molts usually beginning around this time for the next couple of years. Like other large raptors, feathers are molted at slow intervals so as not to inhibit food capture. Only relatively small proportions of the flight feathers are molted each year. Molting occurs more or less continuously, although it may pause in winter if food is in short supply.


title: White-tailed eagle

text: White-tailed eagles of all ages typically perch in quite upright positions on exposed branch, rock or other vantage point, but tend to sit more horizontally on the ground or other level surfaces. They have an ample bill with a relatively high culmen, helping to impart a rather narrow and high crowned facial look, especially compared to "Aquila" eagles. The neck is at times unusually long-looking, more so than in the bald eagle, which can give the upper body a vulturine appearance. The tail is relatively short, and in some adults it can appear disproportionately stubby in relation to the massive body, and slightly wedge-shaped. All ages have a well-feathered tibia but bare tarsi. In flight, the wings are extremely broad and deeply fingered, with the usual tendency for at least six fingers to be visible. Juveniles are longer tailed than adults, which is usually more evident in flying than perched birds, with sometimes a slightly bulging section of feathers manifesting on the wing secondaries. The species tends to fly with shallow wing beats; at times the wing beats can be fairly fast for a bird of this size, but interspersed at times with gliding. At a great distance, this flight style may be suggestive of a large brown heron. The wings are held flat or slightly upraised at the tip in flight and the white-tailed eagle is well known to soar extensively. This species can be surprisingly maneuverable on the wing, usually during aerial displays or dogfights with other birds. These eagles may also maneuver by half-closing both wings or fully closing one wing.


title: White-tailed eagle

text: The white-tailed eagle is considered a very vocal bird of prey during the breeding season, although some authors consider their voice "not loud or impressive for the size of the bird". The male call is oft transcribed as ' or ', while the female is a deeper ' or '. These will increase in tempo and pitch, with about 15–30 calls in a sequence. Often pairs will duet during early spring, in flight or from a perch. When perched, the male calls ' with the head thrown back and upwards in the last call ended with a lower "ko-ko-ko", the perched call of females is similar but deeper, a '. Typically, the perched version of their calls tend to be shriller and higher than those issued in flight.


title: White-tailed eagle

text: In courtship display, male calls ' answered by females with a lower '. Young in nest call a shrilly ', while the female when receiving food from male calls out with ' or '. Single or repeated ' or similar component of calls used in other circumstances, but this can be very variable. Alarm calls tend to be 3–4 short, loud ' or ' notes. Sometimes a different call of alarm or anger, a deep ' or ', similar to alarm calls of a large gull, is also uttered when a nest is approached (usually recorded while directed towards humans). The young let out a monotonous "" when hungry (or "bored") which intensifies if the eaglets are not fed or brooded immediately.


title: White-tailed eagle

text: Given reasonable view, adult white-tailed eagles are difficult to mistake for any other bird. There are no other eagles with fully white tails in their range except for in the easternmost limits of their range, their cousins the bald eagle and Steller's sea eagle, which in adults are obviously very different in all other respects of plumage. Even in poor light, the bald species shows a sharp demarcation from white to dark brown whereas the color contrast is far subtler in white-tailed eagles between their brown body (of a paler hue than that of a bald eagle) and buff-colored head. At a great distance, the adult may be potentially confusable with the Griffon vulture ("Gys fulvus"), as the coloring of the two species is vaguely similar and they can overlap somewhat in size although the vulture can average rather heavier and longer winged. However even at long range, the relatively tiny head, distinctly curved trailing wing-edges and more raised wings make the vulture distinctive from the white-tailed eagle.


title: White-tailed eagle

text: Juveniles may be harder to distinguish, mainly from other sea eagles in few areas of overlap. In northern Mongolia (perhaps spilling over into southern Siberia), the northern part of the Caspian Sea and some central and southern parts of Kazakhstan, the white-tailed eagle may (or may not) live alongside the rarer, relatively poorly-known Pallas's fish eagle. The Pallas's juveniles are more distinctively whitish marked on the underwing. In flight or perched, the Pallas's fish eagle are usually markedly smaller and slighter than white-tailed eagles with a longer and differently marked tail. At all ages, the white-tailed eagle averages a duller, slightly darker and browner colour overall than the Pallas's fish eagle. Pallas's fish eagles are mid-brown on the body in juvenile plumage with no paler feather edging as seen in juveniles and especially subadults of the larger species. Adult Pallas's fish eagles are immediately distinctive rufous hue with a more restricted but more sharply demarked paler buffy head. 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 relatively longer and squarer tail, and somewhat less broad wings. In the coloring, the bald juvenile is similarly as dark or even darker brown above as white-tailed eagle juveniles but on the underside often has more extensive whitish mottling, especially on the underwing.


title: White-tailed eagle

text: Steller's sea eagles are usually distinctly larger and longer tailed, with a taller, bulkier look in eagles standing on the ground or perched. Steller's juveniles have a different wing shape (roughly paddle-shaped) and a considerably more massive and paler bill, which is yellow even in juveniles unlike in bald and white-tailed eagles. Juvenile Steller's sea eagles are a distinctly darker soot colour than juvenile white-tailed eagles with even less whitish showing on the body than the latter species but, on the other hand, the underwing often as white marked as juvenile bald eagles (dissimilarly from juvenile white-tailed eagles), albeit in different pattern. In all three large northern sea eagles, the tail color is similar at the various stages of development but the shape is more distinctive, especially the bolder wedge shape of the Steller's.


title: White-tailed eagle

text: The cinereous vulture ("Aegypius monachus") may too be considered superficially similar to the juvenile white-tailed eagle, but it is considerably larger and longer-winged and possesses a more uniform and darker hue with conspicuous paler legs and a relatively smaller head. Young white-tailed eagles are also potentially confusable with any "Aquila", but should be obvious even as a silhouette in its huge wings, relatively truncated and slightly wedge-shaped tail and obvious projection of the neck and head. All "Aquila" lack pale the axillary band often visible on juvenile and subadult white-tailed eagles. Some greater spotted eagles ("Clanga clanga") can suggest the wing shape of a white-tailed eagle but are far smaller and shorter winged and never bear a protruding head. Similarly, the eastern imperial eagle ("Aquila heliaca") may suggest a white-tailed eagle in its flat wing profile and relatively large head and neck but is also visibly smaller with far less broad wings and a relatively longer tail. Like all "Clanga" and "Aquila", both greater spotted and eastern imperial eagles should be obviously distinct from white-tailed eagles by plumage characteristics. The golden eagle usually appears slightly smaller than the white-tailed eagle and tends to be more dashing in flight, which is usually done with a distinct dihedral. When perched, the golden eagle looks more sleek and compact than the rangier white-tailed eagle and tends to be a darker, richer hue of brown. Golden eagles have a much shorter neck, with a smaller head and bill and a longer, squarer tail. White wing patches of juveniles are also differently distributed in golden than juvenile white-tailed eagles.


title: White-tailed eagle

text: This eagle breeds in northern Europe and northern Asia. Their range extends to as far west as southern Greenland (prevented from breeding further north due to the short summers), northern and western Iceland, and the reintroduced populations in some areas of England (re-established in 2019), Ireland and Scotland, particularly conserved coastal spots. In mainland Europe the range is expanding, with Europe's largest population breeding in coastal Norway (broadly), northern and southwestern Finland, eastern Sweden, broadly in Denmark, islands of the Baltic Sea, western Austria, northeastern Germany, northern and eastern Poland, the Czech Republic, much of the east Baltic countries, the non-montane areas of Ukraine, eastern Slovenia, central and southern Hungary (and adjacent northeastern Croatia), very sporadically in Greece, the Danube sections of Romania and Bulgaria to the Black Sea and western and eastern Moldova. The bird returned to the Netherlands in 2006 and in 2020 the number of breeding pairs had increased to 20.


title: White-tailed eagle

text: In Anatolia, it only remains as a breeder in very sparse and small pockets of Turkey and Georgia, taken as a region there are likely to be fewer than 30 breeding pairs in this region. In the Middle East, the white-tailed eagle may still be found breeding only along the southern coast of the Caspian Sea in northern Iran and southwestern Turkmenistan. Discontinuously, they are found as residents in Kazakhstan where they live in a long strip of the southern part of the country starting at the Aral Sea and the northwestern portion (but not, as far as is known, breeding in the Kazakh part of the Caspian Sea coast). The only country in which the white-tailed eagle is found over a continuous and extremely large area is Russia. The species is found very broadly everywhere in Russia from European Russia in the west to the Bering Sea in the east, only being fully absent as a nester as far as is known from the high Arctic regions and a section bordering westernmost Kazakhstan, although it breeds to south of this in the Russian coastal part of the Caspian Sea. Their northern limits occur in Russia to the Ob river to 70 degrees north at the mouth of the Yenisei River and on the Gyda and Yamal Peninsulas, to the Kolyma, Indigirka and Lena rivers to above 72 degrees north, even to 75 degrees north on the Taymyr Peninsula. They are said to be common around the White Sea, reportedly even the most abundant bird of prey locally and found both on coasts and inland lakes, although breeding rates are low due to the frigid weather. From Russia, breeding populations spill somewhat into northernmost Mongolia, extreme northwestern China and northern North Korea. The white-tailed eagle also breeds on Sakhalin Island, the Kuril Islands and Hokkaido, the northernmost island of Japan.


title: White-tailed eagle

text: The wintering range is less well understood for the white-tailed eagle given the extreme reductions and fluctuations of northern breeding populations over the last few centuries, so that the delineation of regular wintering areas versus areas of mere vagrancy is difficult to ascertain. It is known that a small number winter on Etang de Lindre of Lorraine, France as well as an area on the border of France to Germany around Strasbourg, with vagrants to elsewhere in France, as well as to Spain, Portugal and Malta. A well-defined wintering population may occur in much of the Netherlands, even with infrequent modern breeding in the northern coastal areas. A non-breeding population is known in western Germany from North Rhine-Westphalia to Bonn, as well as far northern Germany into southwestern Denmark. Other established wintering areas are known in Europe in west-central Italy, northern Austria, fairly broadly in southern Slovakia and northern Hungary and a few protected pockets of Southeast Europe apart from the portions in the north and east where they still breed.


title: White-tailed eagle

text: Intermittent forms of vagrancy and migration (most from eagles that breed in or disperse from Russia) are known to occur in several areas of Turkey, the Levant countries, Azerbaijan and Iran down to even the Persian Gulf, albeit seldom is the species to be found commonly or reliably anywhere in these regions. Further east, rare wintering areas are known in a few small, scarce pockets of Turkmenistan, Afghanistan, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan and Pakistan. It is a very rare winter visitor to India, namely the extreme northwest and along the border of Nepal to Bhutan and extreme northern Bangladesh. Scattered pockets of wintering birds are known to occur too in central and southern China, into northeastern Myanmar, and more broadly and regularly in much of Northeast China. Good numbers winter too in much of South Korea and Japan down to as far as Honshu. White-tailed eagles dispersing from their breeding grounds or natal sites in the Russian Far East are known to occasionally disperse across the Bering Sea to North America in several parts of the Aleutian Islands, the Pribilof Islands and some of mainland coastal Alaska down to Kodiak Island. Some white-tailed eagles even bred in Alaska on Attu Island in the late 1970s to the early 1980s (until 1984 when the last attempts were recorded) but it was not clear whether young were ever successfully fledged.


title: White-tailed eagle

text: White-tailed eagles may be found in varied habitat but usually are closely associated with water and generally occurs in lowland areas. Although mainly a lowland species, the species is known to live at elevations of so long as there is water access in some parts of Central Asia and Siberia. In coastal areas, the species may range from high sea cliffs down to low-lying islands and archipelagos. Especially in winter, many white-tailed eagles often frequent low coastal spots, estuaries and coastal marshes. Several studies have supported that coastal areas are preferred when available during winter. In many areas, white-tailed eagles can seem to switch freely between usually cliff habitat and wooded spots for nesting sites and the center of their home range habitat. In some areas, such as Japan, this species may occur in regions with intensive human fishing activity and they may become unusually partially habituated to this human presence. Inland, white-tailed eagles usually require secluded woods, forested areas or groups of trees with tall mature trees and access to freshwater wetlands such as lakes, river systems, marshes or extensive, low-disturbance farmland. In the alluvial wetlands of Croatia, 95% of nests were found within of deep freshwater.


title: White-tailed eagle

text: In some areas, white-tailed eagles readily visit commercial fish farms, carp ponds and similar areas with easily accessible food but they will usually avoid areas where human disturbances (especially noisy varieties such as construction, water sporting and heavy boating activities and hunting) commonly occur. However, forestry activity and resulting lessened numbers of tall mature trees and large tree stands in Estonia was found to affect breeding white-tailed eagles less so than it seemed to affect breeding black storks ("Ciconia nigra"). On the other hand, from studying wintering white-tailed eagles in partially or heavily disturbed wetlands in parts of the Netherlands shows that such areas cannot support the eagles for any long-term period and may only be visited for a day or two by individual eagles. Conversely, reviews of the rapidly increasing Danish population have found that when well-protected, they may regularly forage in habitats near significant humans populations, even in the outskirts of cities, and they can also successfully breed in such locations.


title: White-tailed eagle

text: White-tailed eagles spend much of their day perched on trees or crags, and may often not move for hours. Perhaps up to 90% of a day may be spent perched, especially if weather is poor. Also, they will alternate periods of soaring with perching, especially flying over water or well-watered areas, but do considerably less soaring on average than do golden eagles. Pairs regularly roost together, often near to their nest, either on a crag or tree or crevices, overhung ledges or small isolated trees on a crag.


title: White-tailed eagle

text: The white-tailed eagle may be considered a rather inconsistent and partial migrant. The species seldom migrates in the western part of its range, with eagles even breeding as far north as Greenland, Iceland and coastal Norway not moving at all for winter, but for some southward juvenile movements following dispersal. Juveniles overall are more migratory and dispersive and leave natal areas sooner, which is by August–September in northwestern Europe and return later, by March/April, than adults do. Few Norwegian juveniles, per banding studies, were recorded to travel any considerable distance. Extreme cases include one that was found south of its nest near Karlstad, Sweden, another set of four color-marked first-year juveniles were also recorded to turn up in southern Sweden but one was found down to the Wadden Sea in the Netherlands and it is likely that trickling down numbers of Norwegian post-dispersal juveniles have gone onto form much of the known Dutch white-tailed eagle population. In contrast, young from Finland and Sweden tend to distribute to the southwesterly direction to the shores of the Baltic Sea. One from Finland was recovered west in northern Norway and another was found as far south as Bulgaria. In more southerly areas, winter movements are drawn-out and irregular, with most mature pairs probably never leaving their nesting haunts year-around. Those that breed on inland waterways may migrate to sea coast. German juveniles usually do not travel far, with most recorded to travel less than from their nests and a majority staying near the Baltic coast. However, some eagles that hatched from nests in Germany have been found as far south as in Italy, away to the southeast, or to Gironde, France, to the southwest. In several parts of Russia, quite unlike many European populations, the white-tailed eagle seems to be largely migratory.


title: White-tailed eagle

text: In the far east, the species appear to take different migratory routes in fall and spring, traveling from north-central Kamchatka thru the Kurile islands to Hokkaido in fall, while in spring these eagles travel north through Sakhalin and the Okhotsk Coast. In the White Sea area, southward moments begin in September with most white-tailed eagles being gone by November but in mild winters some adults may remain behind. Some white-tailed eagles from the White Sea were found well over away to the west, in countries such as Hungary and Italy. Return spring migration to the White Sea is by February–March. During winter, whether long-distance migrants or short-distance dispersers, white-tailed eagles tend to become gregarious, especially younger juvenile birds. Many such groups can contain up to 10 and, in areas near large breeding populations such as in Norway, at least 30–40 individuals. Wintering congregations at the Baltic coast and on the River Elbe from 37 winters show that arrivals begin in November, with numbers peaking in January and then declining during March and early April. Although juveniles usually return to their natal area some apparently overshoot these areas, such as those returning to Romania or on the Black Sea which have been recorded north of their natal site and northeast of their natal site.


title: White-tailed eagle

text: Territory size in white-tailed eagles may vary from , usually less than , per one estimate. However, home ranges in northeastern Germany were much smaller than this, at . While territorial behavior is known in well more than half of all modern birds, essentially all predatory birds of different lineages are particularly strongly territorial because the live prey necessary to feed a family, including the female of the pair (which must remain near the young for them to survive) and the young themselves, tends to be sparser. Furthermore, appropriate habitat is needed in which to execute this hunting and also, of course, to build a nest with some security. Although a relatively gregarious raptor, especially among wintering birds and juveniles and immature birds, they are territorial and intrusion by a male in adult plumage often provokes vigorous fighting, in which either combatant can even die. In some cases, these vicious fights can cause damage to the nest as the two fighting eagles plummet down trying to slash at each other.


title: White-tailed eagle

text: The white-tailed eagle's diet is varied, opportunistic and seasonal. Prey specimens can often include fish, birds and, mostly in a secondary capacity, mammals. White-tailed eagles are powerful predators and capable of attacking large prey of considerable sizes but, like most predators, prefer prey that is vulnerable and easy for them to capture. Especially during the winter (and opportunistically in all seasons), many birds of the species live largely as scavengers, usually by coming across available carrion or watching for the activity of corvids, vultures or other raptors. White-tailed eagles in northeastern Germany were shown to hunt mostly from perches, in a "sit-and-wait" style, usually from a prominent tree perch. Like other sea eagles, they can only capture fish normally in the littoral zone, seldom hunting fish when they exceed a water depth of . In addition to trees, they may also use crags, hillocks or high grassy tussocks as hunting perches so long as the perch provides a good overall view of the environment. Fish tend to be grabbed in a shallow dive after a short distance flight from a perch, usually with the eagles only getting their feet wet. Occasionally, though, white-tailed eagles have been recorded plunging right into water, usually while hunting on the wing at a height of at least . In Norway, plunge-diving is considered rare. At times they will also fish by wading into shallows, often from shores or gravel islands.


title: White-tailed eagle

text: The species will at times variously follow fishing boats, readily exploits commercial fisheries, stocked lakes, carp ponds and the like, and scavenges dead fish or fish-offal in a wide range of situations. When it comes to non-fish prey, it has been said that white-tailed eagles often hunt by flying low over sea coast or lakeshore and attempt to surprise victims. However, the hunting success rates on healthy birds can be low as revealed in studying wintering eagles in Sweden attempting to hunt mallards ("Anas platyrhynchos"). White-tailed eagles also regularly pirate food from otters and other birds including cormorants, gulls, ospreys, corvids and various other raptors. Carrion is often the primary food source during lean winter months, with fish and ungulates preferred but everything from cetaceans to livestock to even humans being eaten after death. From studies of captive white-tailed eagles, daily food requirements were estimated at , which is equivalent to about 10% of the birds' body weight, with crop contents commonly of . Some semi-captive juveniles on the isle of Rùm, Scotland could eat up to in one sitting. However, in Norway, it was estimated that a family of wild white-tailed eagles including each adult and three fledglings were consuming on average up to per bird each day. Furthermore, one male consumed an estimated in a single meal upon capturing a large fish. The crop can bulge to the size of a small grapefruit after they've consumed a large meal.


title: White-tailed eagle

text: Many studies have reflected that the primary foods of white-tailed eagles are fish and water birds. These are the primary food as well for other sea eagle species. However, unlike most "Haliaeetus", including the bald eagle and Steller's sea eagle, the water birds tend to take the primary position in the diet. From 26 accumulated food studies for this species, prey remains and pellets show that about 48.5% of the diet is made up of birds, 39.95% by fish, 9.95% by mammals and 1.6% by other foods. In total, more than 300 prey species are known throughout the bird's range. However, based on studies of prey remains and pellets in laboratories from Greenland white-tailed eagles, birds were shown to be biased in both kinds of remains (pellets and prey remains) whereas in situ study and direct nest observation favor fish. Going on pellet/remains alone here in Greenland from 557 items in the 1979 study, 68% of the diet would’ve been represented by birds and only 20% by fish but comprehensive observation shifted it to show fish were the primary food at 58% and birds were secondary at 30%. This study claimed this is often because the bones of fish are dissolved by the large digestive tract of the eagles upon consumption and may thus leave almost nothing in remains and to some extent in pellets. Subsequent studies here showed a much stronger preference for fish in Greenland by 1983, as fish comprised an extreme 91.8% of 660 items. However, this kind of direct continuous observation of food deliveries to nests is not always possible. Furthermore, despite similar bias for prey that is large and leaves conspicuous remains (including any larger fish, bird or mammal), in the bald eagle it was found that fish were usually detectable and dominant in remains and pellets. Most modern biologists may need to leave some fish unidentified but will account for different methodologies of prey study to get the most complete picture attainable.


title: White-tailed eagle

text: During winter, mammal prey can become more important in foods locally, as indicated in Scotland and shown in Norway and eastern Germany. As much as 41% of the diet can be made up of mammals, as was the case on the Kola Peninsula. There is evidence of strong seasonal shifts in food habits in several parts of the range, usually the largest portions of fish are caught during warmer months while birds and mammals are more important in the colder months, especially in coastal areas such as Norway when preferred fish prey often move to deeper water during winter. Among both fish and bird prey, it is thought that a majority that are caught weigh between . At times it has been said that "most" prey of white-tailed eagles will weigh only . However, the mean prey sizes caught can show greater variability. Three studies showed that mean prey size varied from in the Wigry National Park, Poland, in the Rybinsk Reservoir, Russia and in the Volga-Kama Nature Reserve, Russia. Thus, the mean prey size falls just slightly short of the mean prey mass of the golden eagle, which globally averages about .


title: White-tailed eagle

text: Overall, nearly 70 species of fish are known to be taken from throughout the white-tailed eagle's range. White-tailed eagles can hunt fish in fresh or saltwater as well as those that prefer brackish water areas. However, they are basically restricted to taking fish in extremely shallow water, often by preference in water less than deep. Ideal fishing areas can be found in areas such as the Baltic Sea, where low coasts and archipelagos often have a relatively shallow water. While healthy, large fish are often taken as well, white-tailed eagles often take out sickly, injured or already dead fish. In some cases, the fish prey will float to the surface when infected by fish tapeworm, as is often the case with some fish families such as carp. Fish are also caught after being battered, injured, and killed at power plants, from large-scale fishing nets, or are taken directly from human fishermen.


title: White-tailed eagle

text: Benthic fish tend to cling to rocks or sandy soil in shallows may be more vulnerable since they tend to look downward rather upward and are less competent at escaping predators coming from above the water's surface. Therefore, lurking benthic fish such as lumpsuckers are more vulnerable than many. Besides vulnerability, habitat, and prey behavior, fish body size may be a driver in the piscivore's dietary preferences. Studies have indicated that fish less than are taken infrequently, since they have a lower yield, fish of up to are taken secondarily and fish between are preferred since they have the highest nutritional benefit. Fish taken can exceed but since they can start to considerably exceed the weight of the eagle itself, they may prove too difficult to overpower. One large Atlantic halibut ("Hippoglossus hippoglossus") was found with the disembodied feet of a white-tailed eagle still embedded in its back, presumed the eagle drowned after being overpowered and drug under only to rot off, leaving only feet.


title: White-tailed eagle

text: Since they do not have the waterproofing oils on the plumage of the more accomplished raptorial diver, the osprey ("Pandion haliaetus"), white-tailed eagles prefer not to get their feathers wet as it can take a long time for them to dry. This may also make them vulnerable to losing their catch to other white-tailed eagles since their flight may be impaired until the wings are dried. Therefore, when hunting fish, they will almost always take flight as soon as possible to a feeding perch or nest. Another option when taking particularly large fish is for the eagle to stay in the water and row, swimming using their wings, across the water to the nearest bank or shore. While this would leave them waterlogged, of course, the food yield from such a catch is obviously attractive. White-tailed eagles have been photographed doing this with a large fish successfully in Greenland and 35 such cases were reported in Norway alone.


title: White-tailed eagle

text: The most frequently recorded prey species in 18 food studies from across the range is the northern pike ("Esox lucius"), present in at least 16 of those studies. Pike was found to be the main prey species in both the Baltic Sea and Lapland in Sweden, at three breeding locations in Finland, in two studies from Germany, and in Belarus. The maximum representation of pike known was in Lapland, where they comprised 38.2% of 809 food items.


title: White-tailed eagle

text: The next most widely reported fish prey species is the common bream ("Abramis brama"). This bream was reported in 10 of 18 dietary studies and was the main prey in the Polesie State Radioecological Reserve, Belarus, in the Ural mountains region of Russia, and in the Kostomuksha Nature Reserve, Russia. Like the pike, the relatively large size of common bream, which weigh about on average, can prove attractive to hunting eagles.


title: White-tailed eagle

text: Many varieties of fish are taken opportunistically and randomly, as opposed to pike and bream, which can locally appear to be selected out of proportion to their regional population. Particularly diverse in the white-tailed eagle's prey spectrum are the family Cyprinidae, of which more than 20 species are known to be predated including the common bream. Others taken with some preference may include salmonids and cod and their allies, both families known to obtain relatively large body sizes and occasional habituate shallow water, as well as lumpsuckers because they are benthic. In Greenland, the leading prey species is the salmonid, the Arctic char ("Salvelinus alpinus"), which comprised 27.2% of 660 prey items.


title: White-tailed eagle

text: The secondary prey in Greenland was recorded as two species of cod. While the Arctic char can average up to and cod can sometimes grow considerably larger than that, the average weight of cod taken here was estimated at only and the average char at . The largest cods and chars taken during the study were and respectively.


title: White-tailed eagle

text: In Norway, of 524 fish prey items, the common lumpsucker ("Cyclopterus lumpus"), which averages up to but is usually smaller, made up 24% of fish taken and the Atlantic wolffish ("Anarhichas lupus") made up 17% of fish taken. However, fish were secondary to birds overall in Norway. Per two studies from Sweden, fish were usually the main food unlike in Norway and Finland, and could comprise 51–60% of the diet. Fish were also somewhat dominant in the foods from two studies in Belarus, making up 48.1–53.7% of the diet.


title: White-tailed eagle

text: Fish similarly were important to nesting eagles in Hokkaido, Japan where 54% of 533 prey items were fish, led by the Alaska pollock ("Gadus chalcogrammus") at 18.4%. In different studies of the Danube Delta of Romania, from 44.6% to 79% of the diet was comprised by fish, led by the common carp ("Cyprinus carpio") and Prussian carp ("Carassius gibelio"). In the Kostomuksha Nature Reserve of Russia, fish were strongly dominant in food remains, making 80% of the known diet.


title: White-tailed eagle

text: White-tailed eagles are known to prey on about 170 species of bird, the most diverse group in their prey spectrum. While hunting birds, this massive, relatively slow-flying eagle requires an element of surprise, with often a tactful use of cover or bright sunlight upon the approach from a nearby perch. For example, grey herons ("Ardea cinerea") have been caught after an eagle used a low flight over turbulent water to ambush them. However, even with a stealthy attack, the waterfowl favored in the avian diet tend to be highly wary and will more often than not escape. The white-tailed eagles must then attack birds at times of vulnerability or injury, or will often utilize the prey's escape tactics against them. Diving ducks and other diving water birds will be taken preferentially where they are available. In hunting diving birds, they utilize a technique of forcing the birds to dive repeatedly to avoid attacks, until the victim is exhausted from the efforts and can then be caught. Usually while hunting like this, the white-tailed eagle tends to circle low to stay close to the intended victim, with birds diving in shallower water being preferred. Ducks with conspicuous plumage, such as male common eiders ("Somateria mollissima"), with their pale plumage, may be easier to see under water and so may be taken somewhat more via this hunting method. Beyond waterfowl, both loons and grebes have been seen to be successfully hunted in this way.


title: White-tailed eagle

text: Eagles were recorded doing up to 12 attacks on eiders in Russia and were usually successful in procuring prey. Even as many as 65 passes have recorded in less than 45 minutes but more than a few attacks also start to exhaust the eagle, as one immature gave up after 15–28 attempts at a little grebe ("Tachybaptus ruficollis"). While bald eagles may attack diving ducks in the same way, they appear to do so somewhat less regularly and successfully. White-tailed eagles usually have less success hunting dabbling ducks because their normal predator response behavior is to take flight. In one instance, a mallard was caught while flying in mid-air, but usually the much larger eagle is unable to capture ducks in flight. While somewhat less swift in flight, healthy geese can usually outpace a heavier eagle as well and one bean goose ("Anser fabalis") was even recorded to have defended itself successfully against an eagle's attack even though this goose was injured. White-tailed eagles often hunt dabbling ducks and geese most successfully when they are molted into their eclipse plumage which renders them temporarily flightless. Swans during winter may find themselves forced to land due to their bulk on a sheet of ice over water if they can find no open water, which can make their feet stuck to the ice. White-tailed eagles have been recorded utilizing this disability to attack and kill swans. They've also been seen to attack numerous waterfowl when the birds are injured by buckshot from duck hunters. Due to their status as enemy of other large birds, they are frequently mobbed by them and white-tailed eagles have been recorded utilizing violent mobbings to suddenly turn over in flight and predaceously grab one of the birds mobbing them, including large gulls and even a northern goshawk ("Accipiter gentilis"). As an opportunistic predator, it often takes young birds freely as well as adult and fledged juvenile birds. In general, due to different nesting situations, white-tailed eagles instead of dabbling or diving water birds usually attack the more conspicuous or open nests of gulls, those of several other types of seabird, large corvids or other accipitrids. In Germany and Scotland, up to 86% of gulls taken were nestlings and juveniles. Cases of white-tailed eagles eating eggs, instead of nestlings or older birds, is considered rare. Nonetheless, they have been recorded eating a few eggs, which they may carry in their beaks rather in their feet, of some seabirds such as kittiwakes, eiders, cormorants and gulls.


title: White-tailed eagle

text: The most widely recorded avian prey species and, second most widely recorded prey species behind the pike, is the mallard, due to its circumpolar range and commonality in many wetlands areas. However, as aforementioned, healthy mallards are difficult for white-tailed eagles due to their tendency to fly at first sign of danger. However, exploiting the mallard's flightlessness during eclipse plumage may result in eagles hunting them intensely only in late summer. Due to this mallards are usually a secondary prey species year around. The largest known representation of mallards in the diet were from Müritz National Park in Germany, where mallards were the third best represented prey species at 10.1% of 247 items and from Augustów Primeval Forest in Poland, where mallards were the second most numerous prey and made up 9.84% of 803 items. Taken more preferentially where they occur are common eiders. When hunting eiders, perhaps the largest of diving ducks at a mean weight of , white-tailed eagles frequently force the eider to dive repeatedly until it is exhausted and can be captured. When sitting on the nest, the female common eider will try to escape in flight but is a relatively weak and ponderous flier and so too may be often victimized by the eagles. Otherwise the pale plumage of adult male common eiders while they're diving is reported to make them more vulnerable to eagle attacks. Eiders were the leading prey species in Norway making 18.8% of 1612 prey items, as well as in Åland, Finland where the eider comprised 18.63% of 5161 prey items (thus nearly a thousand eiders were taken here). Eiders also appeared to be the main prey species in Iceland. There is evidence that a growing white-tailed eagle population is having a net negative effect on eider numbers in some areas, and locally eiders have altered to partial nocturnal foraging apparently to avoid hunting eagles. In inland regions, an avian prey species preferred by white-tailed eagles is the Eurasian coot ("Fulica atra"). The coot is the second most widely represented bird prey species (and fourth species of any class known overall) in 18 dietary studies. Coots bunch together in marshy spots when approached by a flying eagle and as many as five eagles at once have been recorded attacking large flocks on the water. Coots behaviour often endangers them to large raptors: they seldom dive, are weaker and slower fliers than most water birds and are collectively often less wary and more approachable than most waterfowl are. Coot were strongly the dominant food in Wigry National Park, Poland where they made up 44.1% of 299 items, and were also the leading prey in Augustów Primeval Forest (Poland) where they made up 11.59% of the foods. Overall at Wigry and Augustów, birds altogether made up 66.2% and 47.83% of the diets, respectively. In the Danube Delta, Romania, birds climbed in importance of the diet from 21% in 1970 to 50% by 2015, thanks largely to increased numbers of coots.