Bird Guide

Pallas's Fish Eagle vs White-tailed Eagle

Pallas's Fish Eagle (Haliaeetus leucoryphus)

Pallas's Fish Eagle

Haliaeetus leucoryphus

Huge2.9 kgWetland

The Pallas's fish eagle has a light sandy-brown hood and a whitish face. The wings are darker brown and the back rufous. The long, slender wings (particularly slender for a sea eagle) are rather dark brown underneath. The tail is black with a wide, distinctive white stripe. Juveniles are overall darker, cooler brown with no band on the tail but with several pale areas on the wing, including the underwing coverts and inner primaries. This results in underwings that have a white band in young fish eagles. It takes until the 4th year or so to obtain adult plumage.

ID text from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0

Photo: Koshy Koshy from Faridabad, Haryana, India · CC BY 2.0
White-tailed Eagle (Haliaeetus albicilla)

White-tailed Eagle

Haliaeetus albicilla

Huge4.7 kgRocky

Given reasonable view, adult white-tailed eagles are difficult to mistake for any other bird. There are no other eagles with fully white tails in their range except for in the easternmost limits of their range, their cousins the bald eagle and Steller's sea eagle, which in adults are different in all other respects of plumage. Even in poor light, the bald species shows a sharp demarcation from white to dark brown whereas the colour contrast is far subtler in white-tailed eagles between their brown body (of a paler hue than that of a bald eagle) and buff-coloured head. Voice: The white-tailed eagle is considered a vocal bird of prey during the breeding season, although some authors consider their voice "not loud or impressive for the size of the bird". The male call is oft transcribed as gri-gri-gri or krick-krick-krick, while the female is a deeper gra-gra-gra-gra or krau-krau-krau-krau. These will increase in tempo and pitch, with about 15–30 calls in a sequence.

ID text from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0

Photo: Christoph Müller (http://www.christophmueller.org) · CC BY 4.0

Where you might meet both

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Photos and recordings are credited to their authors under the licence shown. Full profiles: Pallas's Fish Eagle and White-tailed Eagle.