Delight as UK’s biggest bird of prey spotted again on our doorstep
Daily Echo Camera Club member Jordan Callaghan managed to capture the white-tailed eagle in flight, saying: “White tailed eagle taken this morning near lepe, what a stunning bird – it flew directly towards me.”
According to the Hampshire Wildlife Trust, the white-tailed eagle is the UK’s largest bird of prey.
It has a wing span of 2.5 metres – making it an impressive sight on the South Coast.
Sometimes known as the ‘sea eagle’, they prey on fish, mammals and small birds and are most commonly seen in the West of Scotland.
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A Hampshire Wildlife Trust spokesperson said: “A white-tailed eagle’s territory may be up to 70 square kilometres.
“White-tailed eagles mate for life and breed in the same territory each year. This territory may even be used by successive generations for many more years to come.
“Both parents tend to the one or two chicks that hatch each year.
“It was persecuted to extinction in the UK, but reintroduced from Norway during the 1970s.”
A reintroduction project on the Isle of Wight started in 2019 and in 2020, two birds released reared a male chick – making it the first white-tailed eagle born in England since 1780.
Is is the second time in weeks that Jordan has snapped a photo of a white tailed eagle, this one taken four miles away in Holbury.