Haliaeetus albicilla

The White-Tailed Eagle, also called the sea eagle, is distributed across Eurasia and goes as far west as Greenland and as far south as Egypt. According to Wikipedia it's range has extended west to Iceland and Greenland due to global warming, however this might not be true. Other sources state that they migrated to these islands somewhere between 8,000 to 5,000 years ago. They hunt fish and are prone to stealing fish from other animals, especially otters, ospreys, and other sea eagles. They also eat mammals, birds, and carrion in moderation. They are closely related to Bald Eagles; both of these animals separated from their common ancestors about 10 million years ago according to the theory of evolution. While Americans barely register the existence of the White-Tailed eagle, they are incredibly important to European history.

## Etymology

Both Wikipedia and Wiktionary remark that the Anglo-Saxons called it "erne", a word which later developed into our more generic word "eagle". White-tailed eagles range in color depending on their age and particular genes. Noticeably, some are black. This lends importance as part of the reason why the word "eagle" sounds how it does today. In Latin, "aquila" means eagle. This is possibly derived from "aquilus" (dark-colored). However, it could instead be derived from the name of the North Wind, *Aquilō*. This is derived from aqua, which means water, and the eagle does stay near water hunting fish like its American sibling. It could be that the Latin's combined both of these for the aquila, or neither. One thing is for certain: the word eagle derives from the European names for the white-tailed eagle.

It's genus name derives from ᾰ̔λῐᾱ́ετος (haliā́etos), an ancient Greek word meaning "sea eagle". This either referred to the osprey or the sea eagle we have here. It's species name is from "albi" a Latin inflection for "white"; and "-cilla", New Latin for tail.

In Greenland they are called nattoralik. In Polish they are called bielik, which translates to "whitey".

## Variations & subspecies

This bird, like its cousins in North America, have different colors according to its age. Juveniles especially seem to look like Golden Eagles. Unlike their cousins, there's almost no information available for me to be able to distinguish the two. This is especially difficult as white-tailed sea eagle juveniles look much more like adult Golden Eagles than Bald Eagles juveniles do to Golden Eagles of teenage age or older.

In Greenland the population rarely ventures out to explore for new territory, unlike their Eurasian brethren. They tend to be larger than other subspecies.

## History

The Roman army had a special person who was designed to move the formation of troops called the eagle-bearer or "aquilifer". This person carried a staff that had an eagle placed at the top and wore a lion cape. The eagle was of great importance. If the eagle-bearer was injured he was to return to the general and hand him the staff if possible. If he couldn't make it and the item was stolen, battles were fought just to get it back. All of the standards are gone or missing today. It is not known to this author whether the eagle depicted was specifically a white-tailed eagle, a golden eagle, either or depending on the staff, or just an "eagle" in general.

## Conservation

During the 1800s humans became much more territorial. They decided to drive the birds to extinction to protect their farms and fisheries. Later, as conservationism began to develop, DDT affected their numbers as well. Hunters continued to hunt them in smaller numbers as well. As a result, many subspecies have gone extinct. They were successfully reintroduced to Scotland in the 1970s. From there other successful reintroduction projects followed.

Due to hunting in Greenland in the 1800-1900s with the intent of destroying the bird population, they are limited to the southwest coast. They haven't recovered well. There are maybe 200 breeding pairs today.

## Sea also

* Eagles
* Birds of Prey

## References

1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 https://natur.gl/arter/sea-eagle/?lang=en
2. ↑ https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=White-tailed\_eagle&oldid=1089850310
3. ↑ https://en.wiktionary.org/w/index.php?title=erne&oldid=66321771
4. ↑ https://en.wiktionary.org/w/index.php?title=aquila&oldid=66757131
5. ↑ https://en.wiktionary.org/w/index.php?title=aqua&oldid=66408128
6. ↑ https://en.wiktionary.org/w/index.php?title=%E1%BC%81%CE%BB%CE%B9%CE%AC%CE%B5%CF%84%CE%BF%CF%82&oldid=53604474
7. ↑ https://en.wiktionary.org/w/index.php?title=albi&oldid=66741019
8. ↑ https://en.wiktionary.org/w/index.php?title=albicilla&oldid=66741092
9. ↑ 9.0 9.1 https://visitgreenland.com/wildlife-in-greenland/birds/#white\_tailed\_eagle
10. ↑ https://pl.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Bielik&oldid=66999365
11. ↑ https://en.wiktionary.org/w/index.php?title=bielik&oldid=67008318
12. ↑ https://en.wiktionary.org/w/index.php?title=biel&oldid=67177752
13. ↑ https://en.wiktionary.org/w/index.php?title=-ik&oldid=66419398
14. ↑ https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Aquila\_(Roman)&oldid=1076483154