Vincent van der Spek

The species occupies various types of freshwater and marine habitats, breeding on tall trees or sea cliffs – large rivers and large marshes, lakes and reservoirs, coasts, rocky islands. Its breeding range extends across the Palearctic, from Greenland, Iceland and Scotland to Kamchatka and Japan (Orta et al. 2020).

Patchily distributed in Europe, clustering occurring in N Europe/ Baltic Sea region, C Europe, E Balkan Peninsula; absent in most of SW, W and SC Europe (Keller et al. 2020).

Mostly resident species, N & NE European populations are migratory.

Its population trend in Europe is increasing. Evaluated as “Least Concern” (BirdLife International 2022).

Season of assessment

B

Population trendIncreasing
Population size
(min-max, best estimate)		20900-29200,24500
Red List categoryLC
Franks, S., Fiedler, W., Arizaga, J., Jiguet, F., Nikolov, B., van der Jeugd, Ambrosini, R, Aizpurua, O., Bairlein, F., Clark, J., Fattorini, N, Hammond, M., Higgins, D, Levering, H., Skellorn, W., Spina, F, Thorup, K. Walker, J., Woodward, I. and Baillie, S.R. (1) (2022) Online Atlas of the movements of European bird populations. https://migrationatlas.org EURING/CMS (1) Principal investigator
Map

Overall Connectivity for White-tailed Eagle

The species is primarily resident throughout most of Europe – Iceland, coastal Fennoscandia, the Baltic Sea region, C & SE Europe, S European Russia. Most populations from N & NE Europe are migratory (Orta et al. 2020).

Birds breeding in SW Greenland are resident, short-distance dispersal has been found in mostly juvenile birds (Lyngs 2003).

Birds breeding in N Finland & NW Russia migrate mostly SW to the Baltic Sea region. Some birds continue further S to N Italy and Romania (Noskov et al. 2016), or Hungary. Baltic population has generated huge number of encounters of local birds.

C European breeders undertake mostly within-region movements, some birds fly SW as far as SW France, others migrate SE to the Black Sea.

The number of distant encounters available from SE, E (European Russia) and NW Europe is very limited or such are lacking.

Recoveries by Condition for White-tailed Eagle

Most encounters are obtained after 1992. They come from throughout the year, mostly from Nov to Mar (74%); smallest number of birds are encountered Jul-Sep (2.5% combined). N Europe holds the bulk of encounters (86%), followed by C (11%) & E Europe (3%). The encounters based on dead birds decreased considerably over time – from 87% pre-1960 to 4% after 1991, while those based on alive birds – markedly increased from practically none pre-1960 to 95% after 1991; the latter is largely due to ringing recoveries and colour ring resightings. Shooting was responsible for a big part of all cases mainly in the past (61% pre-1960); its importance got progressively reduced in subsequent years.

Most of the distant (>=50 km) recoveries are less than 500km away, some from N & E Europe – more than 2000km.

Annual Movements for White-tailed Eagle

Post-breeding dispersal in C and SE European juveniles starts from Jul to mid-Nov. Overall area used during the first year of life varies largely between individuals (Cheshmedzhiev et al. 2001, Rymešová et al. 2021).

Birds breeding in N & NE Europe leave their breeding grounds Oct-Nov, juveniles usually preceding adults. Large numbers stay in winter in Finland, at least during the winter artificial feeding years (Saurola et al. 2013). Finnish birds are encountered during winter as far as Germany and Croatia in Dec-Mar. Northernmost breeding sites are occupied back in Feb-Apr.

The E Baltic countries population is generally resident, but juveniles disperse mainly SW, reaching C Europe as early as Sep; they winter from France to S European Russia mainly Oct-Mar, some remaining until Apr. C European juveniles and immatures disperse to W & Europe from Sep to Apr.

Connectivity by Month by Region for White-tailed Eagle

Juvenile birds are known to be more dispersive and gregarious than adults (Orta et al. 2020). Natal dispersal distances are significantly shorter in males (Whitfield et al. 2009).

N & NE European breeders migrate SW mostly mid- to late autumn, returning from late winter to mid-spring.

C European and Baltic region populations are generally sedentary but juvenile and immature birds disperse mostly SW (but also S & SE) from their breeding grounds from early autumn to mid-spring spreading between Germany and France to Italy and S Ukraine and European Russia.

A juvenile marked in Israel was encountered as an immature during the following summer on the Turkish Black Sea Coast.

Spatial distribution of the resightings of colour marked birds in N Europe biased due to observers’ effort.

Boris Nikolov

References

Statistics Map
N records N individuals N recoveries
Mapped data*
Total available data
*Mapped data include only distant (>= 50 km) recoveries
References Map
2020 . European Breeding Bird Atlas 2: Distribution, Abundance and Change. European Bird Census Council & Lynx Edicions, BarcelonaEditor(s): Keller, V., S. Herrando, P. Voříšek, et al.
BirdLife International 2022 . Species factsheet: Haliaeetus albicilla. Downloaded from http://www.birdlife.org on 31/01/2022
Cheshmedzhiev, S., Arkumarev, V., Todorov, E. 2021 . data from Movebank study 'Tracking of White-tailed Eagles (Haliaeetus albicilla) in Bulgaria' (ID 943648605) in www.movebank.org“.
Lyngs, P. 2003 . Migration and winter ranges of birds in Greenland. An analysis of ringing recoveries. Danish Ornithological Society/BirdLife Denmark, Copenhagen
Noskov, G. A., Rymkevich, T. A., Gaginskaya, A. R. 2016 . Migration of Birds on Northwest Russia. Non-Passerines. ANO LA “Professional”, Saint Petersburg
Orta, J., G. M. Kirwan, D. A. Christie, P. F. D. Boesman, and J. S. Marks 2020 . White-tailed Eagle (Haliaeetus albicilla), version 1.0. In Birds of the World Link to Article (DOI: https://doi.org/10.2173/bow.whteag.01 ) Cornell Lab of Ornithology, Ithaca, NY, USA
Rymešová, D., Raab, R., Machálková, V., Horal, D., Dorňáková, D., Rozsypalová, L., Spakovszky, P., Literák, I. 2021 . First-year dispersal in white-tailed eagles Haliaeetus albicilla. Eur J Wildl Res 67
Saurola, P. Valkama, J., Velmala, W. 2013 . The Finnish Bird Ringing Atlas Vol. I. Finnish Museum of Natural History and Ministry of Environment, Helsinki
Whitfield, D.P., Douse, A., Evans, R.J., Grant, J., Love, J., McLeod, D.R.A., Reid, R., Wilson, J.D. 2009 . Natal and breeding dispersal in a reintroduced population of White‐tailed Eagles Haliaeetus albicilla. Bird Study 56: 177–186

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