Species Action Framework
Species for conservation action
WHITE-TAILED EAGLE
Species Background
The white-tailed or sea eagle (Haliaeetus albicilla) is found mainly in coastal areas and is the UK’s largest bird of prey. Adults have a conspicuous pale head and neck, a white tail and yellow beak.
Why is this on the Species Action List?
It meets criterion 1b of the Species Action Framework, as a species for conservation action. It is a formerly extinct species, whose reintroduction is not yet considered complete. The current west coast population is still small and, whilst growing in number, remains largely confined to a restricted area. There is now a proposal to undertake an east coast reintroduction to improve the conservation status of the species across Scotland and the UK as a whole. The white-tailed eagle has been described as having an ‘unfavourable’ conservation status across Europe. The species has been well studied and the experiences of the west coast reintroduction will be essential in any further reintroduction work. It is a high profile species which can be used in raising biodiversity issues more broadly, including specific management issues such as persecution. The IUCN reintroduction guidelines have been, and will continue to be, applied. It is a Scottish Biodiversity List species. It is listed on Annex I of the EC Birds Directive and is specially protected under the Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981, as amended.
Habitat, distribution and abundance
The UK distribution is confined to the west coast of Scotland where it was reintroduced over a period of years, from 1975 to 1998. Most of Scotland’s white-tailed eagle population (which numbered 35 pairs in 2006) is now found on Mull, Skye and the Western Isles. In the UK, it is mainly a coastal species, occupying rocky coastlines. It also occurs in upland habitats and is found near rivers and large lakes which, in Europe and Russia, may be several hundred miles inland. Wintering areas are similar to the breeding habitats. The European breeding population is small (5,000-6,600 pairs) but has increased since 1970. The largest populations are found in Norway and Russia, with important populations also found in south-west Greenland.
General ecology
Sea eagles feed on a wide range of prey items, including fish, hares, rabbits, ducks and seabirds, as well as scavenging for carrion especially during the winter months. Nests in Scotland are mostly built in trees, but crags and cliffs are used elsewhere and these huge structures are either used in successive years or alternated with other sites in the territory. Two, occasionally three eggs are laid in March, though sometimes as late as April, with chicks fledging in late July or August. Breeding usually occurs from four or five years old, but territory establishment may be earlier.
History of decline, contributory factors and current threats
In the 19th century over 100 eyries were known from Britain, with birds
breeding in Scotland, England and the Isle of Man, and 50 from Ireland.
However, following prolonged persecution in the early 19th century, it
became extinct in the UK with the last bird shot on Shetland in 1916.
Habitat loss was not a factor. Following reintroduction efforts on the
west coast, birds quickly settled in Mull and Skye, and the population,
although small, is currently expanding. In western Europe, numbers also
declined dramatically and its range contracted during the 19th and
first half of the 20th centuries due mainly to persecution but also to
environmental pollution (e.g. mercury, organochlorines). This trend has
been in reverse in the north-west of the range since the 1970s, but it
is still in decline in south-east Europe. Globally, current threats
include loss and degradation of wetlands, increasing human disturbance,
indiscriminate use of poisons, collisions with wind turbines, and
reduced availability of suitable habitat, and susceptibility to
environmental pollution leading to reduced breeding success.
Action up to April 2007 and partners involved
The first attempts at reintroduction took place in 1959 in Argyll and
on Fair Isle in 1968 but were unsuccessful. In 1975 a reintroduction
programme started on the Isle of Rum importing 82 birds from Norway
over the next ten years. In 1986 the first chicks were produced by
reintroduced birds. Further releases in the 1990s in Wester Ross
ensured a self-sustaining population. In 2006 the 200th wild-bred
white-tailed eagle chick fledged on the Isle of Skye. The reintroduced
population is continually monitored, with protection and surveillance
at nest sites, while some eyries have been improved by Protection
Teams. The Mull and Skye Eagle Schemes include an RSPB viewing area at
the Aros Centre on Skye (supported by the Biodiversity Action Grants
Scheme) and an RSPB/ FCS viewing hide on Mull. Both schemes have raised
the species’ profile and were supported by the Heritage Lottery
Fund via the Nadair Trust, an Argyll-wide project. SNH offers positive
management schemes to farmers with white-tailed eagles on their land on
Mull and parts of Skye. Current partners include FCS, Highland
Foundation for Wildlife, Raptor Study Groups and RSPB.
Other web-based key sources of information:
- Arkive species account
- RSPB species account
- Europa species account
- BirdLife species account
- BirdLife data summary
SNH is not responsible for content of other websites
Distribution data from the NBN (National Biodiversity Network)
(Note that not all records may be shown, and records from areas where the species no longer occurs may also be given)
Publications
Websites of partners who have approved the SAF implementation plan
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