Birds of Central Oklahoma

All birds Hawks, Eagles, and Kites

Bald Eagle, adult
Adult Photo by Paul Danese. CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons.

Bald Eagle

Haliaeetus leucocephalus

Here October to May.

Recorded by Beverly Hallberg. CC BY-NC-SA 4.0, via xeno-canto, trimmed and volume evened out.

Look for

  1. A white head and a white tail. The rest of the body is dark brown.
  2. A big, hooked bill. Males and females look alike, but females are bigger.
  3. Long, wide wings. When it soars, the tips spread apart like fingers.

A little about it

In Oklahoma, Bald Eagles spend the winter at big lakes. You can see them from about October to May, and October has the most. A few stay here all year.

Eagles eat mostly fish. An eagle swoops down and snatches a fish out of the water with its sharp claws, called talons. It also eats ducks, coots, rabbits, and turtles. Sometimes it steals food from other birds.

Eagles mate for life. A pair builds a huge nest of sticks in the tallest tree around and may use it year after year. They keep adding to it, and an old nest can weigh up to 2 tons. The female lays 2 eggs, and both parents keep them warm for about 35 days.

The Bald Eagle has been a symbol of the United States since 1782. Long ago, hunting and a bug poison called DDT made eagles very rare. Laws protected them, and now there are many more.

Fun fact

When eagles pair up, they fly high, grab each other's feet, and tumble down through the sky together. They let go just before they hit the ground.

When it's here

Taller bars mean more sightings. Most often seen in October.

How big

SparrowRobinCrowGoose

27 to 36 inches, with wings almost 7 feet across. Much bigger than a crow. A grown eagle stands about 3 feet tall.

Where to look

Big lakes and rivers. Look in tall trees near the water, or high in the sky above it.

  • On or by water
  • Flying overhead

People have spotted it at Arcadia Lake, Lake Overholser, Lake Stanley Draper.

Could it be something else?

  • Young Bald Eagle

    Dark brown all over, with some white blotches on the wings and tail. It takes about 5 years to get a white head and tail.

  • Turkey Vulture

    Both are big and dark, so people mix them up. A vulture has a small, bare red head. It soars with its wings held up in a V.

More photos

Bald Eagle, young bird
Young bird Photo by chloe ⋆˚꩜｡. CC BY-SA, via iNaturalist.

Where these facts come from