A bald eagle's body is about 28 to 38 inches long, and female eagles are larger than males. A big female can weigh as much as 14 pounds, or about 6.5 kilograms, and her wings can spread up to 8 feet, or 2.4 meters, across. An eagle's feathers weigh about 700 grams, twice as much as its skeleton, and a bald eagle can fly as high as about 10,000 feet. The hind talon of a large female is almost 2 inches long, and about an inch and a quarter on a small male, and biologists use it to tell the sexes apart.

A bald eagle sees at least four times better than a person, but its eyes cannot move from side to side, so it turns its whole head to look around. A hungry bald eagle waits on a favorite perch until it sees a fish near the surface of the water. It is reported to dive at speeds up to about 100 miles per hour, or 160 kilometers per hour, and it takes fish from near the surface without going under the water. It grabs its prey with the sharp talons on its toes. Sources say its grip is about 10 times as strong as a person's, and it can carry prey up to about half its own body weight. Fish is its favorite food.

Bald eagles are found throughout North America, and they live near water. In winter many bald eagles gather near rivers where salmon come to spawn. Bald eagles that nest in the north generally fly south in winter, to open water. When they are not nesting, bald eagles often rest together at shared roosts. Eagles pick roost trees for their height, their width and the shelter they give from bad weather, usually within a kilometer of water.

A bald eagle pair builds its nest over one to three months before the eggs are laid. The nest is made of large sticks, and the pair comes back to it year after year, adding more sticks, twigs and grass. Eagle nests are usually in tall trees, but they have also been found on cliffs, on the ground and on towers and power poles. In the tallest trees a bald eagle nest can be built 180 feet or more above the ground, and some nests weigh as much as a ton. As of November 2026, the largest recorded bald eagle nest, found in Florida, was 20 feet deep.

A pair most often lays two eggs, and sometimes one or three. Both parents take turns keeping the eggs warm. The eggs hatch after about 35 days, and a newborn bald eagle weighs about 60 grams and may gain up to 180 grams a day. Young eagles stay in the nest for 10 to 12 weeks. They are mostly brown, and they get a white head and tail when they are about four or five years old. Bald eagles usually first breed at about 5 to 6 years old, and adults may skip laying eggs in some years. As of November 2026, a bald eagle can live up to about 30 years in the wild.

Words to know

• talons: sharp claws
• roost: a resting place
• skeleton: all the bones
• perch: a high seat
• biologists: nature scientists