Sea eagle, Kamchatka eagle, Pacific eagle, all this is the name of the same bird - one of the heaviest eagles on Earth - the Steller's sea eagle. In addition to their large size, these birds are also distinguished by their high intelligence as for birds - they remember all their chicks throughout their lives and plan their hunt, calculate everything to the smallest detail.
Steller's sea eagle in flight, Golden Horn Bay, Vladivostok. 
Steller's sea eagle on the ice of the Golden Horn Bay, Vladivostok, winter 2013.
Geography of residence
The Steller's sea eagle inhabits the Kamchatka Peninsula and the coast of the Sea of Okhotsk. These birds are common in the southern part of the Koryak Upland, in the valley of the Penzhina River. Also, these birds can be found along the lower reaches of the Amur, in the north of Sakhalin, on the Kuril Islands and on the territory of Korea. The Steller's sea eagle often flies to North America, Japan and North China. However, outside the territory of Russia, the Pacific predator can be found only during winter migrations.
Birds nest only on the territory of the Russian Federation, seasonal migrations occur both singly and in small groups twice a year - from March to May and from the end of October. In the autumn-winter period, eagles live on the sea coasts; they rarely fly into the taiga.
The Steller's sea eagle soars in the sky. 
The Steller's sea eagle dives. Appearance
The largest of the eagles can reach a length of 115 cm, and the wing length varies between 57-69 cm, the wingspan is more than 250 cm.The weight of an adult depends on gender, so the average weight of a male is 7-7.5 kg, and females are 8 -9, some of the "girls" weighed over 12 kg.
The colors of the plumage of adults combine dark brown and white, less often there are birds with a single-color dark brown plumage. Against the main dark background of feathers, white spots on the wings, white tail spots stand out as a bright spot, the forehead of the bird and the plumage of the legs are painted in the same color (the bird gets a kind of "white pants"). Such an outfit appears in birds at the age of 4-5 years.
The plumage of young Pacific eagles is painted in a monochromatic brown color with light speckles.
The paws and beak of the bird stand out as a bright spot against the background of the plumage - they are bright yellow, sometimes even orange, at the end of the paws there are clearly visible powerful and strong black claws, with special spines to hold the prey.
There is no sexual dimorphism in the plumage and is expressed only in the mass of the bird. Eagles moult from mid-May to early October. Small feathers are replaced simultaneously with large ones.
Steller's sea eagle in the sky. 
Nutrition and behavior
For its habitat, the bird chooses the valleys of the lower reaches of the rivers with forests and rocky coasts of the seas, they can also settle on the shores of large lakes, on islands and rocks in river valleys. These birds do not belong to nocturnal predators, they are active only in the daytime.
Pacific eagles are not just predators, but gourmet gourmets - they feed only on live prey. The diet is dominated by large and medium-sized fish, they give the greatest preference to salmon fish, and birds still do not disdain mammals - hares, arctic foxes, small seals. Other fellow birds can also become prey for eagles, often the predator is caught by wood grouses, partridges, ducks and gulls. Sometimes birds also eat marine invertebrates - crabs and mollusks. Carrion is extremely rare in the diet of birds.
These birds hunt like real aristocrats. At first, they soar majestically over the sea, looking for a victim for themselves, as soon as it is found, the bird swiftly sinks down, snatches out their waters and rushes away. The bird is capable of holding a fish weighing 4 kg with its claws. An interesting fact is that, due to their impressive size, the eagles cannot dive, instead it descends in a parabola, plans, turns over in the air, its fall can be compared to the flight of a fallen leaf. The eagle eats its prey without a trace, it breaks with a strong beak, and fins and bones.
Steller's sea eagle with prey. 
The Steller's sea eagle hunts fish. 
Steller's sea eagle "picks up" a fish thrown to him, Vladivostok. 
The Steller's sea eagle caught a fish. Large dimensions do not allow the bird to stay in the air for a long time, as a rule, the flight time does not exceed 30 minutes a day. This behavior is what determines the bird's place of residence along the coast of the seas in order to be able to get to food as quickly as possible.
Steller's sea eagles also have natural enemies - crows, sables and bears.
Reproduction
Steller's sea eagles become sexually mature only by 5-6 years of age, they are monogamous birds, they mate for life. However, in spite of monogamy, both females and males are characterized by “adultery” (this feature was established thanks to DNA examination of chicks from neighboring nests - in one nest there may be not only native chicks, but also chicks that are part of the mother).
After reaching the age of marriage, the bird builds a ritual nest in the fall, in which it will not nest. Mating games begin in mid-March, and clutches appear in the nest in April-May.
The eagle's nest is striking in its enormous size, it consists of large and heavy branches and is located on the tops of trees or on the top of a cliff, sometimes at an altitude of about 120 meters. If the nest is built on a tree, the dead-top trunk is usually selected and used for no more than 8 years. Sometimes a couple has several nests at the same time, the distance between which can reach nine hundred meters. Every year the nest is repaired and at the end it can reach three meters in diameter and two meters in height, there are times when, under its weight, the structure falls down along with the offspring.
In the clutch of the Pacific eagle, there are usually 1-3 whitish-green eggs, if at the beginning of the tub the egg was destroyed, then the bird will lay a new one. Only the female hatches eggs, which does not leave them for a minute; the male is responsible for her nutrition during this period. Incubation lasts 35-36 days; chicks hatch at the end of May - June. Babies will stay near their parents for 2-2.5 months, and will fly out of it until the beginning of September, for some time they will be close to their parents, but soon they will leave them forever.
In order to feed the babies, parents need to bring medium-sized fish, up to 30 cm, to the nest 2-3 times a day.Eagles are very loving parents, they recognize their chicks after many years, and desperately protect babies from predators, they can even forge a bear without fear ...
Unfortunately, for various reasons, about 15% of eagles die in early childhood - nests are plundered by natural enemies, babies die from diseases or hypothermia, or as a result of kaism, when older chicks kill fellows.
The Steller's sea eagle is resting on a tree. 
Steller's sea eagle on a tree branch. 
The Steller's sea eagle soars high in the sky in search of prey. 
Steller's sea eagle on a snowy shore. 
The Steller's sea eagle walks on the ice. - In medieval Japan, samurai hunted eagles to decorate their ceremonial clothing with their feathers.
- The average life expectancy in the natural environment is 20 years in captivity, about 40, the record belongs to a bird from Korea - she lived in captivity for 54 years.
- At the moment, the population of birds is about 7,500 individuals, birds are listed in the International Red Book.
Genus: Haliaeetus Savigny, 1809 = Eagles
Species: Haliaeetus pelagicus (Pallas, 1811) = Steller's Sea [Kamchatka, Pacific] Eagle
Species: Haliaeetus pelagicus = Steller's sea eagle
Although the Steller's sea eagle is a species with a limited area of distribution, it has a relatively stable population. Haliaeetus pelagicus is endemic to Russia, which is confined to the Pacific-Sea of Okhotsk coast. The Steller's sea eagle belongs to the category of rare species (category III). The species is included in Appendix II to the CITES Convention.
The Steller's sea eagle inhabits the southern part of the Koryak Upland (up to the middle course of the Apuka River), the valley of the Koryak River. Penzhins, about. Karaginsky, the whole of Kamchatka, the coastal areas of the Sea of Okhotsk to the south to the lower reaches of the Amur, the Shantar and Kuril Islands, the northern part of Sakhalin. In Kamchatka, it is a nesting, wintering, partially migratory species with a tendency towards a slow decline in numbers. Possibly nests on islands in the extreme south of Primorye. In the summertime, the Steller's sea eagle is sometimes found in the Middle and South Primorye. For the winter, some eagles remain in their nesting areas, while others roam within the nesting area or migrate south to Primorye, Korea, Japan and North China. Sometimes the Steller's sea eagle flies even to Northwest America.
The Steller's sea eagle is the largest bird of prey in the fauna of the Far East: the body length of the male is 88 cm, of the female is 102 cm, the wingspan is 200–245 cm, the record is 287 cm. at 8-10 years old. Males and females are colored the same. The general coloration is black-brown with large white spots on the wings. In addition, a white tail, long and sharply wedge-shaped in shape, a white forehead and peculiar white "trousers" (shin feathers) are characteristic. Ocher and whitish streaks on the head and neck give birds (especially old ones) a "gray" appearance. The eyes are brown, the wax and paws are yellow, the claws are black. The bill is massive, convex, of bright yellow or orange color, clearly visible from a distance. Juveniles in transitional plumage are brown and speckled, but their beak, which is just as massive and yellow, makes it possible to reliably distinguish birds of this species even at a young age.
The world population of the Steller's sea eagle totals about 7.5 thousand individuals, of which 5.6 thousand are conditionally adult birds. The Kamchatka population has 1200–1500 pairs and at least 1500 immature birds. On the sea coast, in suitable places, one pair lives for every 2.5–8 km, and in the valleys of large rivers, in places, 2–3 nests are located 0.8–1.5 km from one another.
On the coasts of Kamchatka, individual nesting pairs are located 8-10 km from each other, in the lower reaches of some rivers - 1.5-2 km. In the floodplain forests of stone birch, the nesting density can reach 2 - 3 pairs per 1 km. A high number of Steller's sea eagles is noted on lakes in the lower reaches of the Amur, and in total from 50 to 60 pairs of these birds nest in the Khabarovsk Territory. In all the areas studied, the relative stability of the species abundance is noted.
A definite relationship between the abundance of the Steller's sea eagle and the white-tailed eagle has been traced: in the areas of their joint habitation, the abundance of the latter is almost always significantly lower. Such a ratio was noted in the coastal areas of Kamchatka, on the Amur lakes and the Shantar Islands, and on the Okhotsk coast near Magadan and in other places where Steller's sea eagles are present, no white-tailed nesting was observed at all. Seasonal migrations, singly and in scattered groups, take place in the spring from late March to mid-May, and in autumn at the end of October and November. Therefore, in autumn and winter, a high number of Steller's sea eagles was noted in the Southern Kuriles and Kamchatka. 
The Steller's sea eagle feeds mainly on fish, which led to its close connection with the sea coasts. Therefore, the eagle inhabits high-trunk coastal forests and rocks located no further than 50 - 80 km from the sea coast. The Steller's sea eagle feeds on large and medium-sized fish (especially salmon), mammals (hares, young arctic foxes, young seals), birds, carrion (in particular, sea waste) and marine invertebrates. The feeding spectrum of different pairs can differ markedly depending on the location of the nesting site (on the seashore or far from it), as well as depending on the skill (hunting experience) of specific birds.
In non-breeding times, the Steller's sea eagle lives mainly on the seashore and on reservoirs with available fish, primarily salmon. Such reservoirs define a kind of framework for the internal range of the Steller's sea eagle. With the beginning of the salmonids' spawning movement, most Steller's sea eagles eat them, and not only live fish, but also dead fish that have spawned. Nevertheless, in general, Steller's sea eagles are among the most important consumers of salmon in Kamchatka. Among birds, they occupy a key place in the ecosystems of salmon spawning grounds. In winter, in congregations of birds (for example, on Lake Kurilskoe), it is Steller's sea eagles that dominate in trophic relationships with the red salmon, being practically the only bird species that catches live fish and other birds feed on the remains of their food. In eagles nesting near rookeries, the proportion of salmonids in the diet of chicks may be negligible.
Mating pairs of Steller's sea eagles are formed at the age of more than 4 years, at which time the eagles can build a ritual nest in the fall, in which, however, they do not nest. Reproduction begins at the age of no earlier than 7 years.
The Steller's sea eagle builds on trees (birch, larch, poplar, alder) massive and heavy nests of thick branches at a height of 6–11 m. The nest can also be located on the upper surface of rocks, often overgrown with grass, at a height of 5–120 m not higher than 50 m). The Steller's sea eagle can use the same nest for up to 8 or even 15 years in a row, although on average they nest for 5–6 years, which indicates their high territorial conservatism. Sometimes the Steller's sea eagle occupies long-abandoned buildings, renovating and completing them. It is not uncommon for one pair to have 2 nests that it occupies from time to time.
Oviposition occurs in April and May in snowy conditions. Chicks stay in the nest for 2–2.5 months and hatch in late July and August, rarely in September. Until mid-October, broods are kept 2–3 km from the nesting site. Due to the death of nests, clutches and chicks, breeding success even in protected areas is 30–70%. 1–2 juveniles leave the nest, on average 0.8–0.9 individuals.
Repaired annually, the nests grow in size and reach 3 m in diameter, 2 m in height and hundreds of kilograms of weight. In clutch 1–3, usually 2, on average 1.94 eggs, hatching lasts 34–36 days. The Steller's sea eagle also reproduces in captivity, laying up to 5 eggs. Dead clutches are sometimes renewed if the egg disappears at the beginning of oviposition or incubation.
In winter, dozens of Steller's sea eagles died from starvation in Kamchatka, but in recent years their food supply has improved, which has contributed to the restoration of the population. Life expectancy in nature is unknown; the Steller's sea eagle lived in captivity for 44 years.
In the forests located in the lower reaches of the rivers, on the rocky sea coasts and the shores of the large Far Eastern Kamchatka and Sakhalin lakes, you can often meet a mighty majestic bird - the Steller's sea or Pacific eagle and hear the loud sound of its unique low scream “ra-ra-ra-rau-rau ". The Steller's sea eagle is also called the Steller's eagle in honor of Georg Wilhelm Steller, one of the members of Bering's expedition to the Pacific Ocean.
Eagle habitat
Seaside predators, eagles, look out for their prey from the tops of tall trees or rocks. Often they hunt, circling high above the water surface or snatching fish right out of the water with their claws, while standing on sandbanks. Naked, tarsus-free and spiny-covered toes help hold slippery prey.
The Steller's sea eagle lives only in the Far East of Russia. If in Kamchatka it is found all year round, then it spends winter on the Kuril Islands, Primorye, Sakhalin, as well as in China, Korea and Japan. The main thing for these birds is the presence of reservoirs with fish - they are especially attracted by salmon.
The weight of this one of the largest predators, the “motley sea eagle,” as it is called in Primorye, reaches 8 kg, its length is 1.05 m, and its wingspan is 2.4 m.
With a disproportionately large, bright yellow beak and monstrous claws, the Steller's sea eagle is able to cope even with a deer and a ram. However, the purpose of the beak and claws is to catch and “butcher” salmon. Another white-tailed eagle lives in
Breeding eagles
Until the age of one year, having the same dark brown plumage with a white base, eagles acquire their beautiful outfit by the age of three. The snow-white epaulettes-feathers on the shoulders that appeared in adult birds are in sharp contrast to the dark body.
The formation of mating pairs in eagles begins at the age of four, when they begin to build ritual nests in the autumn. Eagles usually choose the dead top of a large tree or the top of grassy cliffs to locate their nests. Constructed of large, dry and heavy branches, lined with last year's leaves and stalks of cereals, decorated with a kind of "border" of thin green larch branches, their nests are huge.
Undergoing annual repairs, nests gradually increase in size and often reach three meters in diameter and two in height.
Reproduction in eagles begins no earlier than seven years of age. Usually in April - May they lay a maximum of three slightly greenish eggs. In June, chicks hatch, receiving three meals a day in the form of a fish up to 30 cm long, which the parents hunt. It often happens that the masonry cannot be protected from sable, ermine, black as soot, crows. It happens that already hatched chicks die due to falling from the nest, diseases, it often happens that the older ones kill the younger ones.
Eagle feeding
Adult eagles feed mainly on fish; in the Lower Amur region, their food is carp, crucian carp, catfish, killer whale, whitefish, chum salmon and pike.
In winter, in Primorye, they are attracted by the waste of fur farms, meat processing plants, dumps of cattle burial grounds. But, nevertheless, they can attack wood grouses, willow grouses, gulls. Huge birds also do not disdain mammals: hares, arctic foxes, ermines, sables, as well as marine invertebrates.
Many individuals of sea eagles do not fly to the South Primorye, Korea and Japan for wintering, but hibernate near large spawning grounds, where by the current of the river the "sleeping" chum salmon and pink salmon are carried to the ice-free polynyas. But if in frosty weather the ice holes are tightened, the eagles die of hunger. In addition, brown bears destroy them, poachers shoot them.
The Steller's sea eagle is the largest feathered predator of the northern hemisphere and one of the smartest birds on the planet. He remembers all his chicks and plans the hunt with the scrupulousness of a good economist. For the salmon peacefully swimming along the coast of Kamchatka, the eagle diving from a height is Death itself with a sharp yellow beak. A beak that is not only feared by salmon. The reduction of biodiversity on Earth is a textbook topic, if not a hackneyed one. In the 18th century, on the Mascarene Islands in the Indian Ocean, the last dodo - a bird of the order of dove-like birds - disappeared; since the beginning of the 20th century, moa, a herbivorous bird that looks like a plump ostrich, has ceased to be found in New Zealand; in the 21st century, several species of birds are deleted from taxonomy reference books every year. However, we are not talking about the need to protect the Steller's sea eagles, of which there are about seven thousand individuals left in the whole world. These birds are worthy of conversation, regardless of their numbers - eagles would be admired, even if there were no less of them than crows. It is more interesting to tell why these yellow-billed fighter planes are admired by scientists, samurai and entire nations.
The impressive weight of the eagle limits the active flapping flight time: no more than 25-28 minutes per day.The genus eagles of the hawk family includes eight species. Three of the most famous and largest: the bald (symbol of the United States of America), the white-shouldered and the white-tailed eagle. The largest is the Steller's sea eagle (Haliaeetus pelagicus). There are also more massive birds of prey in the northern hemisphere, but all of them are scavengers, while the eagle obtains its food for the most part by active hunting. The Steller's sea eagle is a Russian endemic: it is found only on the coast of the Sea of Okhotsk, Kamchatka and Sakhalin, and flies to the Japanese islands for the winter. The eagle inhabits and nests on a narrow, one and a half to two kilometers wide, coastal strip - closer to the sea, which means closer to food. The fact is that this predator obtains food in a rather peculiar way. The impressive weight (from seven to nine kilograms) limits the time of an active flapping flight: no more than 25-28 minutes a day, but the eagle can glide as long as it wants. “It is clear why with this approach to business it is necessary to settle near the sea: it should be no more than twenty minutes before the“ self-service restaurant ”,” says Vladimir Masterov, a researcher at the Department of Vertebrate Zoology of the Biological Faculty of Moscow State University. The menu has been tested by generations: salmon, newborn helpless seal pups that lie on snow-white ice floes, like a ready-made dinner on plates, or other goodies like rodents. If we consider Kamchatka (Sakhalin or the coast of the Sea of Okhotsk) as a bird country, then it can be divided into areas cut parallel to the coastline. Each region is ruled by its own bird: near the coast, as it was said, the Steller's sea eagle lives, further the white-tailed eagle lives, which is lighter and, accordingly, able to spend more time in active flight, the dexterous osprey is even farther from the coast. The osprey is a serious competitor to the eagles. She is an excellent fisherman and, thanks to her excellent maneuverability, can fall vertically downward like a stone at any point in the flight - with such an unexpected attack, the fish has no chance. As for the eagle, it is too heavy for such a dive, therefore, aiming at its prey, it flies in a parabola, gliding and turning over in the air like a falling leaf. The eagle has an airplane type of flight (there is also a helicopter flight, for example, in a hummingbird), and its method of accelerated descent is called the “dry leaf method”. Illegitimate children. The Steller's sea eagle is the so-called K-strategist. People, like all mammals, are also K-strategists: they live long and reproduce slowly. In nature, the eagle lives no more than 18-23 years. However, these figures are rather approximate, because the age of birds can be established only by observing a separate individual from the moment of hatching from an egg or by marking chicks. To find out how old a mammal was, it is enough to take any bone and count the number of rings - every year the periosteum lays a new outer layer. Birds have hollow bones - when a new outer layer is formed, one inner layer is destroyed. This is necessary to lighten the skeleton, but it is impossible to determine the age of a dead bird from its skeleton. The record in captivity belongs to the Steller's sea eagle from the Sapporo reserve on the island of Hokkaido - he lived for 54 years. At six or seven years old, eagles reach puberty and begin to look for their other half, and if two loneliness meet, then, as a rule, they do not part all their lives. Most eagles are monogamous and conservative. First of all, having chosen a favorable place, the young couple builds a nest; the nest has been twisted by common efforts for more than one year. After the lovers have got their own home, they think about children. Every year two or three babies appear in the nest. Unfortunately, only 85 percent of chicks survive to adulthood. Basically, the nests are ruined by connecting rod bears, and they do this for an unknown reason - it is energetically unprofitable for large bears to hunt small, low-calorie eagles. Impudent crows also eat chicks, and it happens that sables too. Eaglets often die of hunger: the same crows not only eat babies, but also take away prey from adult birds. Even such an imposing predator as an eagle, carrying a weighty salmon in its beak for a long-awaited family dinner, retreats in front of a flock of crows, unceremoniously grabbing it by the feathers. Sometimes betrayal happens among the eagles. DNA analysis of chicks from different nests revealed family ties between them, and sometimes children from two dads were in the same nest. It turns out that both husbands and wives go “to the left”. Rarely, but it happens that three eagles live - a Swedish family. In any case, regardless of whether it is their own or someone else's, the eagles will recognize the reared chicks all their lives. A lighthouse for the Nivkh, a trophy for the samurai. First of all, the eagle is distinguished from other birds by its color - bright, elegant, noticeable from afar to both humans and birds. The tribes of the Nivkhs living on Sakhalin and the small islands off the coast of the Sea of Okhotsk - the spits - trusted the yellow-billed Steller's sea eagles no less than the lighthouses: a bright beak is visible even in the fog, it indicates to the traveler the proximity of land. The eagles themselves need bright plumage to save energy. Each bird has its own territory; fellow tribesmen, having noticed a yellow-white-black spot, understand: the place is occupied, and try to look for other hunting grounds. In the old days, Japanese samurai They hunted Steller's sea eagles to decorate their arrows with the tail feathers of a noble bird. Now hunting is officially prohibited, but the pursuit of beauty cannot be stopped by any prohibitions, and the shadow business of catching birds for the sake of rare feathers flourishes in Japan today. At the very beginning of our century, a sad incident took place on the island of Hokkaido: the number of sea eagles declined sharply. And this happened for the following reason. The authorities of the island strongly encouraged the hunt for roe deer and deer, the destroyers of village gardens. They shot deer with lead bullets: the hunters left the carcasses of the killed animals in the forest, in the tradition of Japanese hunting. Of course, the eagle is not a scavenger, but who would refuse fresh deer or roe deer meat, so accessible and so alluring. The eagle begins to tear apart the deer in the area of the wound - where there are most fragments of bullets and buckshot. The result of a hearty meal is heavy metal poisoning and early death. Subsequently, the lead bullets were replaced with steel ones, but the number of birds in Hokkaido has not returned to its previous level. “Many of my colleagues,” sighs Vladimir sadly, “believe that the eagle is doomed, like the ancient pterodactyls.” The flying lizards disappeared without our help. It would be great if we did not rush the beautiful eagles into oblivion.
