The Bald Eagle is one of the largest birds in the region, with a wingspan of about 6.5 feet or more. Adults are hard to mistake: dark brown body and wings, white head and tail, and a heavy yellow bill. Young eagles look very different. They are mostly dark brown with irregular white mottling and pass through several plumages before reaching the full white head and tail at about five years old.
It is one of eight sea eagles in the world and the only one found across North America. Fish are its main food, but it is an opportunist that also takes waterbirds and mammals, feeds on carrion and steals prey from other eagles and from Ospreys. In the Northwest some eagles move with the salmon runs.
Nests are huge stick platforms high in big trees. Pairs reuse and add to them for years, until some weigh more than a ton.
Hunting, DDT and habitat loss drove the species into steep decline in the twentieth century. After DDT was banned and the bird was protected, it recovered. It came off the federal endangered species list in 2007 and Oregon’s threatened list in 2012, and it remains protected under the Bald and Golden Eagle Protection Act. It now nests in most Oregon counties and is seen statewide outside the breeding season.
How to identify it
A very large raptor. Adults have a dark brown body, white head and tail, and yellow bill, eyes and legs. Immatures are dark brown with variable white blotching and take about five years to reach adult plumage. Sexes look alike, but females are noticeably larger.
Look-alikes
Young Bald Eagles can be mistaken for other large dark raptors. Ospreys are smaller and slimmer, with clean white underparts and a dark stripe through the eye.
Habitat
Near large rivers, lakes and reservoirs with fish, nesting in the tallest trees nearby. Outside the breeding season it turns up across Oregon, often in open valleys near open water.
Sightings in the forest
162 research-grade sightings in Mt. Hood National Forest on iNaturalist, most recently on October 17, 2026. See them on iNaturalist →