January Bird of the Month – Bald Eagle From Ben Kolstad’s article in the January Kite:

Even if no one can spell its taxonomic name without triple-checking it, everyone is familiar with Haliaeetus leucocephalus, the official bird and animal of the United States of America. This iconic raptor is widespread across the continent nowadays, although its population plummeted in the mid-20th century, and for a while in the 1960s and 1970s it looked like it, along with other top avian predators like the Peregrine Falcon and Osprey, might be extirpated from the continent. The famous ban on DDT in 1972 allowed populations of many of these endangered animals to recover, and now the Bald Eagle’s IUCN conservation status is “species of least concern,” meaning that it is considered stable.

These large raptors can be found year-round in Palm Beach County, usually in the western portions. If their size alone isn’t a strong enough field mark for you, in flight they hold their wings dead straight (see photo) and they appear to be nailed to the sky, so little do they move or rock (compare that to the notoriously unsteady Turkey Vulture). One might say that these birds are unflappable, were one given to wordplay. Adult plumage takes several years to develop; immature birds, while they lack the white head and tail, have a rather diffuse mottling that is hard to confuse with any other Florida raptor. Come to our January meeting to hear more about this bird.

(Photographer’s please note that next month’s February 2015 Bird will be the America’s Everglades Snail Kite)