Immatures lack the white markings.
Adults have a wing span of about two metres.
Males weigh an average of 2.5 kg and females 3.1 kg. This species is migratory, moving southward in winter and northward in the spring. Bald eagles breed from northwestern Alaska and British Columbia, south to southern United States and Baja California. Their winter range extends from coastal Alaska and British Columbia, extreme southern Alberta, Ontario, Quebec and Nova Scotia south to northern California, central New Mexico, northern Louisiana and central North Carolina. The subspecies found in Canada is H.l. alascanus .