Bald Eagle
Monday, November 3rd, 2014At Medicine Lake, Plymouth, MN
Nov 1, 2014
Taken with a Sony Cybershot camera
Education:
There are 2 subspecies of Bald Eagle. They are nearly identical in ID marks. The only major difference is geographic range. This is in MN so it has to be a Northern Bald Eagle. Most birds do not have distinct subspeciest that can be recognized in field, however others can have several. Most of these can be easily found in a comprehensive bird guide such as the Sibleys Guide to Birds of North America.
The subspecies are in fact completely identical in plumage, and are distinguished only by size, with the northern population on average somewhat larger than the southern one. However, size may vary in clinal fashion, and it is not clear from the data that members of either population stay solely within their roughly-defined regions. (I’d be surprised if they did!) In other words, Bald Eagle subspecies are not well defined and may not truly exist biologically speaking.
