The highly developed talon of the hind toe is used to pierce the vital areas of prey while it is held immobile by the front toes. The legs are feather-free, and the toes are short and powerful with large talons. The beak, feet and irises are bright yellow. Males and females are identical in plumage coloration, but sexual dimorphism is evident in the species, in that females are 25% larger than males. The tail is moderately long and slightly wedge-shaped. The plumage of an adult bald eagle is evenly dark brown with a white head and tail. 10 Ma BP) at the latest, but possibly as early as the Early/Middle Oligocene, 28 Ma BP, if the most ancient fossil record is correctly assigned to this genus. The pair diverged from other sea eagles at the beginning of the Early Miocene (c. The two species fill the same ecological niche in their respective ranges. This species pair consists of a white-headed and a tan-headed species of roughly equal size the white-tailed eagle also has overall somewhat paler brown body plumage. The bald eagle forms a species pair with the white-tailed eagle of Eurasia. It is found in the northern United States, Canada and Alaska. alascanus Townsend, 1897, the northern subspecies, is larger than southern nominate leucocephalus. washingtoniensis (Audubon, 1827), synonym H. It is found in the southern United States and Baja California Peninsula. leucocephalus (Linnaeus, 1766) is the nominate subspecies. There are two recognized subspecies of bald eagle: The bald eagle was one of the many species originally described by Carl Linnaeus in his 18th-century work Systema Naturae, under the name Falco leucocephalus. The genus name is New Latin: Haliaeetus (from the Ancient Greek: ἁλιάετος, romanized: haliaetos, lit.'sea eagle'), and the specific name, leucocephalus, is Latinized ( Ancient Greek: λευκός, romanized: leukos, lit.'white') and ( κεφαλή, kephalḗ, 'head'). Bald in the English name is from an older usage meaning "having white on the face or head" rather than "hairless", referring to the white head feathers contrasting with the darker body. The bald eagle is placed in the genus Haliaeetus ( sea eagles), and gets both its common and specific scientific names from the distinctive appearance of the adult's head.
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