The Story
I photographed Isaiah, or Ike, a Bald Eagle (Haliaeetus leucocephalus), at the Avian Reconditioning Center in Apopka, Florida, United States, in October 2020. Bald Eagles live across most of Canada and Alaska, all of the lower 48 states and northern Mexico, near large open water with plenty of food and old trees for nesting. Their wingspan is usually 1.8 to 2.3 meters. They build the largest nest of any North American bird, up to 4 meters deep, 2.5 meters wide and a metric ton in weight. IUCN lists it as Least Concern.
I used a Pentax K-1 with the HD Pentax-D FA 150-450mm f/4.5-5.6 for this one, at 1/3200 sec, f/7.1, ISO 400. The Avian Reconditioning Center is a nonprofit in Apopka that has rehabilitated injured and orphaned birds of prey since 2001 and releases healthy raptors back to the wild.
©2023 Adam Rainoff Photographer
The bird
The Bald Eagle (Haliaeetus leucocephalus) belongs to the family Accipitridae (Hawks, Eagles, and Kites) in the eBird/Clements taxonomy.
Source: eBird.org (opens in a new tab)
Conservation
Least Concern on the IUCN Red List (assessment published 2024), with the population trend listed as increasing. Source: IUCN Red List