Bald eagles are found throughout North America, and they live near water. In Oregon and Washington, bald eagle home ranges were 6 to 47 square kilometers, averaging 22.

Eagle nests are usually in tall trees, and in the tallest trees a bald eagle nest can be built 180 feet or more above the ground, but nests have also been found on cliffs, on the ground and on towers and power poles. In treeless places such as Alaska, bald eagles nest on the ground, often on cliffs, sea stacks or ridges that are easy to fly to. Some nests weigh as much as a ton, and as of November 2026, the largest recorded bald eagle nest, found in Florida, was 20 feet deep.

Bald eagles that nest in the north generally fly south in winter, to open water, but not every eagle makes the trip. Southern adults that breed south of 40 degrees north are often permanent residents, while northern interior birds migrate south between August and January. Birds from the upper Midwest may travel 6 to 151 days to reach their summer range and 15 to 77 days to reach their winter range.

In winter many bald eagles gather near rivers where salmon come to spawn, and when they are not nesting, they 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 hungry bald eagle waits on a favorite perch until it sees a fish near the surface of the water, and it also hunts by flying low over water or land. A bald eagle is reported to dive at speeds up to about 100 miles per hour, and it takes fish from near the surface and does not dive under the water. Fish is its favorite food, and it also eats ducks and small animals such as rabbits.

A river's flow speed and rain can affect how well an eagle catches fish, and bald eagles forage much less when people are active nearby; their feeding may drop by as much as 35 percent. A bald eagle can go several days without food, and it eats a lot when food is found, storing it in its crop.

Bald eagles have large, forward-facing eyes and probably see well with both eyes together, and a bald eagle sees at least four times better than a person. Its eyes cannot move from side to side, so it turns its whole head to look around. Bald eagles have little sense of smell.

An eagle grabs its prey with the sharp talons on its toes, and the tendons and tendon sheaths in its legs ratchet its toes shut, so it can hold on for a long time without tiring the muscles. 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.

Nesting starts at different times in different places: September in Florida, February in Ohio and January in Alaska. The nest is made of large sticks. Tree nests are most often 1.5 to 2 meters across and 0.7 to 1.2 meters tall, and a pair sometimes finishes one in 4 days, though it can take 3 months.

A pair most often lays two eggs, and sometimes one or three, about 36 hours apart, which raises the chance that at least one egg hatches when conditions are best. Both parents take turns keeping the eggs warm, and mothers sit on the eggs about 3 to 7 times more often than fathers do. The eggs hatch after about 35 days.

A newborn bald eagle weighs about 60 grams and may gain up to 180 grams a day, and the eaglets are light gray when they hatch and turn brown later. The nestlings are fed 4 to 5 times a day, and are kept covered nearly all the time for about 4 weeks. Young eagles stay in the nest for 10 to 12 weeks.

A Florida study found that a year after leaving the nest, 89 percent of young eagles in rural places and 65 to 72 percent in suburbs were alive, and as of November 2026, recent studies show that about 70 percent of eaglets survive their first year. 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.

The insecticide DDT got into fish, and eagles that ate them laid eggs with shells too thin to last. In 1963 only 417 nesting pairs of bald eagles were known in the lower 48 states. The United States banned DDT for most uses in 1972, and bald eagles were removed from the federal endangered species list in 2007. Federal law forbids harming bald eagles, their nests or their eggs. As of November 2026, an estimate from 2018 and 2019 data puts the bald eagle population in the lower 48 states at about 316,700 birds.

Words to know

• crop: a food pouch
• migrate: move each season
• forage: look for food
• insecticide: bug poison
• roost: a resting place