Haliaeetus albicilla

The white-tailed eagle, sometimes known as the "sea eagle", is a large bird of prey, widely distributed across temperate Eurasia. Like other eagles, it is a member of the family Accipitridae which also 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, gray sea eagle and Eurasian sea eagle.

Haliaeetus albicilla

Bengt Nyman from Vaxholm, Sweden · CC BY-SA 2.0 · via Wikipedia/Commons. May be a photograph of a specimen, or an artist’s reconstruction — an interpretation of a skeleton, since colour and soft tissue are almost never preserved.

On record

Recorded, not inferred
Also called
white-tailed eaglePBDB
Sits inside
HaliaeetusPBDB
Diet
carnivorePBDB, for Accipitridae
Life habit
volantPBDB, for Accipitridae
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Theropoda
Environment
terrestrialPBDB, for Accipitridae
Mass
4.01 kgWikidata

Time the record covers

At least 762 thousand years on record.

The record covers at least 774 ka to 11.7 ka. No occurrence read is dated outside 2.58 Mya to 0 Mya.

Pliocene — about 0 of 23 occurrencesPleistocene — about 20 of 23 occurrencesPleistoceneHolocene — about 3 of 23 occurrences2.7–2.6 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences2.6–2.5 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences2.5–2.4 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences2.4–2.3 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences2.3–2.2 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences2.2–2.1 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences2.1–2.0 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences2.0–1.8 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences1.8–1.7 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences1.7–1.6 Mya — about 0.9 occurrences1.6–1.5 Mya — about 0.9 occurrences1.5–1.4 Mya — about 0.9 occurrences1.4–1.3 Mya — about 0.9 occurrences1.3–1.2 Mya — about 0.9 occurrences1.2–1.1 Mya — about 0.9 occurrences1.1–1.0 Mya — about 0.9 occurrences1.0–924 ka Mya — about 0.9 occurrences924 ka–821 ka Mya — about 0.9 occurrences821 ka–719 ka Mya — about 0.6 occurrences719 ka–616 ka Mya — about 0.3 occurrences616 ka–513 ka Mya — about 0.3 occurrences513 ka–411 ka Mya — about 0.3 occurrences411 ka–308 ka Mya — about 0.3 occurrences308 ka–205 ka Mya — about 0.3 occurrences205 ka–103 ka Mya — about 2 occurrences103 ka–0 Mya — about 9 occurrences774 ka11.7 ka3.08 Mya0 Mya

23 occurrences of Haliaeetus albicilla on record, most of them in the Pleistocene. The Paleobiology Database records this as a living group. Bar height is expected occurrences, not a count: each fossil is spread across the span it is dated to, so a tall narrow bar means tight dating and a low wide one means loose.

When

23 occurrences

These are dates about fossils, not the animal: the record can only begin after it arose and end before it died out, so either end may reach further. Shares are expected occurrences: a fossil dated to a span is counted partly in each period it straddles. More on what this infers.

Haliaeetus albicilla and its relatives

Pleistocene

Where Haliaeetus albicilla and its relatives were recorded in the Pleistocene.

Found in the same rock

253 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 22 sites for Haliaeetus albicilla, and this reads all of them. The number is how many of those sites it was catalogued from too. The 24 sharing the most are listed.

This is not a list of everything alive at the time. It is only what has come out of the same ground as this animal and been written down.

Entered from

10 references

Each of the 23 occurrences read was entered from one of these publications, ordered by how many each accounts for. This is not a search for papers mentioning the name. Entries link to doi.org where the Paleobiology Database holds an identifier, and to its own record where it does not. Relayed as the Paleobiology Database holds them, not checked against what they resolve to.

Media and terms

Media content2

Picture of Haliaeetus albicilla

Credit
Bengt Nyman from Vaxholm, Sweden
Licence
CC BY-SA 2.0
Commercial use
the licence allows it

3D model

Source
Sketchfab
Licence
CC Attribution
Commercial use
cannot be read from the licence given — check the record

Smithsonian Open Access was not reached for this taxon, so this list is what the others held rather than everything there is.

The description on this site

Licence
CC BY-SA 4.0

This is what the site found, which is not the same as what exists.

Keep going

What may have been alongside itHaliaeetus through timeFormations of the PleistoceneThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. (Linnaeus 1758)