Haliaeetus albicilla


Taxonomy [top]

Kingdom Phylum Class Order Family

Scientific Name: Haliaeetus albicilla
Species Authority: (Linnaeus, 1758)
Common Name(s):
English White-tailed Sea-eagle, Grey Sea Eagle
Spanish Pigargo Coliblanco, Pigargo Coliblanco de Groenlandia, Pigargo Europeo

Assessment Information [top]

Red List Category & Criteria: Least Concern ver 3.1
Year Published: 2013
Date Assessed: 2013-11-01
Assessor(s): BirdLife International
Reviewer(s): Butchart, S.
Facilitator/Compiler(s): Benstead, P., Harding, M., Khwaja, N.
2012 Least Concern

Geographic Range [top]

Range Description: The species has its strongholds in Norway and Russia (which together hold >55% of the European population (BirdLife International 2004), and important populations in south-west Greenland (to Denmark), Sweden, Poland and Germany. Smaller numbers breed in Iceland, United Kingdom, Finland, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Belarus, Austria, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Slovenia, the former Yugoslav states, Bulgaria, Romania, Hungary, Moldova, Greece, Turkey, Iran, Armenia, Georgia, Azerbaijan, Ukraine, Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan, Mongolia, mainland China, and Japan. It formerly bred in Algeria and may still do so in Iraq.
Afghanistan; Albania; Armenia (Armenia); Austria; Azerbaijan; Belarus; Bosnia and Herzegovina; Bulgaria; China; Croatia; Czech Republic; Denmark; Estonia; Finland; France; Georgia; Germany; Greece; Greenland; Hungary; Iceland; India; Iran, Islamic Republic of; Iraq; Israel; Japan; Kazakhstan; Korea, Democratic People's Republic of; Korea, Republic of; Kyrgyzstan; Latvia; Lithuania; Macedonia, the former Yugoslav Republic of; Moldova; Mongolia; Montenegro; Nepal; Netherlands; Norway; Pakistan; Poland; Romania; Russian Federation; Serbia (Serbia); Slovakia; Slovenia; Sweden; Switzerland; Syrian Arab Republic; Taiwan, Province of China; Turkey; Turkmenistan; Ukraine; Uzbekistan
United Kingdom
Bangladesh; Belgium; Bhutan; Cyprus; Egypt; Ireland; Italy; Lebanon; Luxembourg; Malta; Myanmar; Palestinian Territory, Occupied; Saudi Arabia; Spain (Canary Is.); Svalbard and Jan Mayen; Thailand; Tunisia; United States (Georgia - Native)
Present - origin uncertain:
Faroe Islands; Tajikistan

Population [top]

Population: In Europe, the breeding population is estimated to number 5,000-6,600 breeding pairs, equating to 15,000-19,800 individuals (BirdLife International 2004). Europe forms 50-74% of the global range, so a very preliminary estimate of the global population size is 20,300-39,600 individuals, although further validation of this estimate is needed. National population estimates include: c.100-10,000 breeding pairs and c.1,000-10,000 wintering individuals in China; < c.100 breeding pairs and c.50-1,000 wintering individuals in Korea; < c.100 breeding pairs and c.1,000-10,000 wintering individuals in Japan and c.10,000-100,000 breeding pairs in Russia (Brazil 2009).
Population Trend: Increasing

Habitat and Ecology [top]

Habitat and Ecology: The species requires large and open expanses of lake, coast or river valley, within the boreal, temperate and tundra zones, nearby to undisturbed cliffs or open stands of large, old-growth trees for nesting. Its food is vertebrates (fish, mammals and especially birds), from marine, freshwater and terrestrial environments. It is mainly migratory in the north and east of its breeding range, wintering in continental Europe and southern Asia, but sedentary elsewhere. Birds are usually seen singly, or in twos or threes (Ferguson-Lees and Christie 2001).
Systems: Terrestrial; Freshwater; Marine

Threats [top]

Major Threat(s): Threats that affect this species include loss and degradation of wetlands, human disturbance and persecution, environmental pollution, collision with wind generators (Krone and Scharnweber 2003), and indiscriminate use of poisons. Modern forestry methods reduce the availability of suitable nesting habitat. Although some losses may be taking place in Asian Russia owing to increased logging and oil industry development, these are outweighed by increases in Europe.

Conservation Actions [top]

Conservation Actions: Conservation Actions Underway
CITES Appendix I and II. CMS Appendix I and II.

Citation: BirdLife International 2013. Haliaeetus albicilla. The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. Version 2014.3. <>. Downloaded on 27 May 2015.