The Steller's sea eagle is the largest of the sea eagles, and it is called the heaviest known eagle. Its body is about 34 to 41 inches (86.5 to 105 centimeters) long. Its wings can stretch up to 8 feet from tip to tip. A female can weigh up to about 20 pounds (9 kilograms), and a male weighs less.

It has a dark body with white on its shoulders, thighs and tail. It also has a very large yellow bill. The bill is described as hatchet-like, and it is suited to tough salmon skin.

A Steller's sea eagle uses both eyes together to judge where its food is. This is called binocular vision.

The eagle glides on rising warm air instead of flapping all the time. The eagle hunts from a perch or while flying, and it catches prey in its talons. Sometimes it stands in shallow water or on ice and grabs fish that swim by.

Steller's sea eagles eat mostly salmon, a kind of fish. Besides fish, they eat crabs, shellfish, small animals, gulls and carrion, which is an animal already dead. A Steller's sea eagle will sometimes steal food from other birds.

These eagles nest in eastern Russia, around the Sea of Okhotsk and on the Kamchatka Peninsula. They live near sea coasts and big rivers.

As of November 2026, estimates put the world's Steller's sea eagles at around 5,000 birds.

A pair often returns to the same nest each year and adds more branches to it. A nest can be 1.8 to 2.4 meters (6 to 8 feet) wide. A female lays one to three eggs in spring, and a pair usually raises just one chick. A young eagle learns to fly when it is about 10 weeks old.

In winter, many Steller's sea eagles fly south to Japan. Some stay in Kamchatka for the winter and move to open water. Hundreds gather at Kuril Lake in Kamchatka each winter to feed on salmon.

Words to know

• binocular: using both eyes
• talons: sharp claws
• carrion: dead animal
• shallow: not deep
• peninsula: land by water