White-tailed eagle
Majestic bird
Few birds are so huge or inspire such respect as eagles. Consider this majestic white-tailed eagle on a bitter winter day, perched on a frozen carcass somewhere along the Baltic coast.
Elderly female
This particular specimen is a seven-year-old female, a large individual with a wingspan of 234 centimetres (ca. 92 inches) and a body weight of seven kilograms (ca. 15 pounds).
Studied by scientists
As a young, she was ringed in the nest. She was born and spent her life along the coast just north of Stockholm. White-tailed eagles became fertile at age five, and she was able to produce offspring only twice before she died.
Violent death
Her life came to a violent end– a collision with an electric power line that she failed to detect in time. An autopsy at the Swedish Museum of Natural History disclosed that, on a previous occasion, she had also been shot; a large shotgun pellet was lodged in her abdomen.
