The White-tailed Eagle or Sea Eagle is the UK’s largest bird of prey, with a huge wingspan of up to 2 and a half metres. It was once widespread across the UK, and formerly bred on the Exmoor coast, but was persecuted to extinction across the country. Since the 1950s, conservation efforts have attempted to restore the species to its former range and, following successful releases in Scotland (1975) and Ireland (2007), their numbers are beginning to increase. From 2019 onwards there’s been a White-tailed Eagle project based on the Isle of Wight, run by Roy Dennis Wildlife Foundation and Forestry England under licence from Natural England and NatureScot. The birds released there are fitted with satellite tags to enable the team to follow their movements. This has shown that Exmoor has become a White-tailed Eagle hotspot, with seven different birds visiting since 2019.

Where can you spot them?

White-tailed Eagles prefer wetland habitats, such as estuaries and coastlines, but they can also be sighted in quiet areas away from water, particularly when they are young. You’ll have to look carefully though, tracking data has shown they like to spend 90 per cent of their time perched!

What do they look like?

Their wings are very broad and look more rectangular than those of a golden eagle, with fingered tips.  As the name suggests, they have a white tail with a distinctive wedge shape, but it’s ridged with black in young birds. The head and neck are pale, almost white in mature birds, although the young eagles are dark brown and don’t attain full adult plumage until 4-5 years of age. They have a hooked yellow beak, yellow legs and talons and piercing golden eyes.

What do they eat?

White-tailed Eagles favour fish, but take a variety of other prey including birds, such as corvids, small mammals and carrion (dead animals). For young eagles, carrion will make up a large proportion of their diet, but by their third year they gravitate towards wetland sites and become adept at catching fish. They are opportunistic and will often steal food from other predatory birds. The diet of the white-tailed eagles released on the Isle of Wight has been studied in detail since 2019, which has shown they love seasonally abundant marine fish, such as grey mullet. They also predate gulls, carrion crows and other corvids, with younger eagles often feeding on small mammals like rabbits in inland areas.

Could they prey on young livestock?

We are aware of and understand concerns amongst the farming community about predation of livestock, following media reports from Scotland. Sea Eagles in Scotland do eat lamb as carrion,  but it is not common for them to take live lambs. There is also not the same monitoring of eagles via satellite in Scotland that happens on the Isle of Wight. The Scottish Government agreed a White-tailed Eagle management plan up until 2024, where grants might be available to farmers to support wider sheep husbandry with any confirmed proof of predation. There are no known cases of livestock predation elsewhere on continental Europe, or in England since the Isle of Wight project began in 2019. You can find out more about how Roy Dennis Wildlife Foundation work with famers and landowners in a steering group and robust reporting process here. A similar process with steering group would be put in place if the project were to go ahead on Exmoor, with precise satelite tracking for any birds released and any resulting chicks from breeding birds, dependant on landowner permssion for access to the birds.

Reproduction

Eyries, the special name for a bird of prey’s nest, are built in the mature trees and cliff ledges, made from sticks. They can become huge structures, more than 2 metres wide and deep.  1-3 eggs are laid in late March-early April and incubated for 38-40 days, predominantly by the female.  For the first three weeks after hatching the male does all of the hunting and after that time both adults provide for the young.  The young fledge after 11 weeks and remain reliant on their parents for 6 weeks or more.  Young white-tailed eagles often roam widely in their first few years of life, before returning close to their natal area to establish a breeding territory.  They can live to over 20 years of age.

Why the need to release more if a few are here anyway?

Despite their exploration when juvenile, Sea eagles return to where they fledged to breed, so we would need to release a small number of the birds here to result in even two breeding pairs (due to natural mortality in the wild).

Spotted a White-tailed Eagle on Exmoor? Tell us about it at this email address: seaeagle@exmoor-nationalpark.gov.uk

More FAQs

Find lots more information on White tailed Eagles and how we propose to work with the Roy Dennis Wildlife Foundation and Forestry England to help to reinforce the population in South West England here:

www.roydennis.org/white-tailed-eagle-reintroduction-in-southern-england/