| The American Bald Eagle Essay, Research Paper
I chose the American bald eagle because it is one of the
fastest and strongest species of eagles. It is the national
symbol. The Congress adopted it as the national symbol in
1782. I think it was adopted as the national bird of the
United States because the Roman soldiers used the eagle
as a symbol of courage and power. In the early 1800’s,
Americans called the Bald Eagle, the American eagle. Here
is some of the biology of the Bald Eagle. Bald Eagles do a
very good job at their part in the food web. Bald eagles
also have an interesting name. The scientific name for bald
eagles is Haliaeetus leucocephalus. The family order is
accipitridae and falconiformes. The young of bald eagles
are called eaglets or eyasses. Bald eagles are
warm-blooded and breathe oxygen from the air. A female
will lay 1 to 3 eggs every five years, with at least 1hatching.
Although all Bald Eagles are consumers, none of them eat
plants to get their chemical energy. Some birds in the eagle
community are African fish eagle, Stellerís sea eagle,
white-bellied sea eagle and the palm-nut vulture. Bald
eagles, out of all eagles are carnivores; they eat fish, there is
no such thing as a herbivore or even an omnivore Eagle.
The young of a bald eagle are fully fledged (just like their
parents and ready to live in the world) at about the age of 4
months. After hatching, newborn eagles are all white and
blind. Male bald eagles generally measure 3 feet from the
end of the beak to the tip of the tail, weighing about 7 to 10
pounds, and having a wing span of 6 feet. Females, some
larger, reach about 14 pounds and have a wingspan of 8
feet. Bald eagles live only in the United States and Mexico.
Bald eagles will only live near lakes and rivers. A bald
eagle’s nest is about 70 feet above the ground in tall pines
or deciduous trees. Nests are almost 7 feet wide and five
feet deep. The territory of a Bald Eagle has a carrying
capacity of 10 to 40 square miles, per eagle. Eagles will
live in cold, warm and light temperatures. Bald eagles will
eat just about anything; they have a large range in their
predator/prey role. An eagle’s diet consists of fish, rodents,
small snakes, and small game birds. It will also steal food
from other species of small birds or other eagles, including
its own kind! Sometimes it will even kill a bird to get food.
It will also eat carrion, food that was already killed, which
means it is sometimes a decomposer. Bald eagles have
interesting ways of protecting themselves. Bald eagles have
oil inside of their feathers to protect themselves from rain or
snow. Bald eagles also have special feathers that will
insulate them in the winter. A female eagle will outstretch its
wings over the young to form a portable shelter. Once,
several students went up to the Quabbin Reservoir, found
an active eagles nest, tore it apart and found 60 cat collars.
Bald eagles were at homeostasis until they were put on the
endangered species list from the 1950s up until the early
1980’s. Ever since, federal law has protected bald eagles
and whoever kills or tries to kill one will suffer a $500 fine
and a year in jail. There are many biotic and abiotic factors
in an eagles environment, but none compare to there love
for salmon, and there passion for high altitude; whether it
be them soaring and 10,000 feet, or them sitting in their
nest on the top of an incredibly steep cliff.
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