Eagle in 50: Accipitrid radiation

The white head and tail typically appear after four to five years. Juveniles are mottled brown, which reduced historical miscounts in winter surveys. How fast is an eagle stoop compared with level flight? Level cruising for large eagles is often 50–80 km/h. A hunting stoop is a different regime — trained golden eagles have been filmed above 240 km/h.

Did DDT almost erase North American bald eagles? By 1963 the lower-48 count was about 417 nesting pairs. The 1972 DDT ban plus Endangered Species Act protection preceded the 2007 delisting. No. “Eagle” is a grade inside Accipitridae. Sea eagles (Haliaeetus) and booted eagles (Aquila) split tens of millions of years ago.

Why is the Philippine eagle a different conservation story? Pithecophaga jefferyi is a forest-interior endemic with perhaps a few hundred adults. Logging and shooting, not eggshell thinning, dominate the threat list. Many pairs are socially monogamous and reuse eyries, but extra-pair behaviour and mate replacement after nest failure are documented.