Classroom lesson 路 Wildlife馃嚫馃嚜 Sweden

The white-tailed eagle - 'the flying door'

A wingspan of 2.5 metres makes it Europe's biggest eagle

A white-tailed eagle soaring with wings outstretched against a blue sky

Photo 路 Wikimedia Commons

What is it?

The white-tailed eagle is Sweden's biggest bird - and one of the biggest eagles in the world. With wings stretched out, it measures 2.5 metres across, which is roughly the size of a door. Swedish birdwatchers sometimes nickname it 'the flying door'. It lives along the Swedish coast and around lakes.

Tell me more

A white-tailed eagle has a yellow beak the size of a banana, dark brown wings, and - when it is fully grown - a snow-white tail that you can spot from far away. Younger eagles have brown tails; the tail only turns white when they are about five years old.

Eagles build the biggest nests of any bird in Europe. A nest can be 2 metres across, made of huge sticks balanced in the top of a pine tree by the sea. The same pair of eagles uses the same nest year after year, adding more sticks each time, until the nest weighs a tonne or more - heavier than a car.

These eagles mostly eat fish. They glide on their huge wings, low across the water, then suddenly drop their feet and grab a fish from just below the surface. They can spot a fish from 1,500 metres up - that is six times higher than the tallest building in most cities.

About 50 years ago, white-tailed eagles almost disappeared from Sweden. There were only a few left. People worked together to clean up the rivers, ban chemicals that were poisoning the eagles' food, and protect their nests. Today there are around 1,000 pairs again. It is one of the great wildlife rescue stories of Europe.

In the classroom

Walk your class through this in 15 minutes.

Talk together

Discussion prompts

  1. 01What can you see from 1,500 metres up? Why do you think eagles need such sharp eyesight?
  2. 02Eagles add to the same nest year after year. What do humans build that gets passed down across generations?
  3. 03Why is it good news that the eagles came back to Sweden? What does that tell us about looking after nature?
Try this

Classroom activity

On the playground or hall floor, mark out 2.5 metres with chalk or tape. That is the wingspan of a white-tailed eagle. How many of your classmates standing in a row would it take to match it? Then ask everyone to spread their arms - whose wingspan is closest?