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Why aren't Bald Eagles actually bald? |
by Mya Kagan (whyzz writer) >> more about the author
Bald Eagles are big, beautiful birds that are known for being the National Bird of the United States. But with their brown-feathered bodies and white-feathered heads, what about them is so “bald”??
The history behind this curious name is actually a word from Old English, “balde,” meaning “white-headed”! So the name “Bald Eagle” is actually not meant to imply that they are hairless at all… it’s actually supposed to be like calling them “White Headed Eagles.” To think of them as white-headed birds instead of birds-without-hair certainly makes a lot more sense, because these special birds definitely have plenty of feathers – in fact, every Bald Eagle has about seven thousand feathers on its body!! WOW!
Bald Eagle Trivia
There are lots of cool things you can learn about Bald Eagles. Here’s a few!
The history behind this curious name is actually a word from Old English, “balde,” meaning “white-headed”! So the name “Bald Eagle” is actually not meant to imply that they are hairless at all… it’s actually supposed to be like calling them “White Headed Eagles.” To think of them as white-headed birds instead of birds-without-hair certainly makes a lot more sense, because these special birds definitely have plenty of feathers – in fact, every Bald Eagle has about seven thousand feathers on its body!! WOW!
Bald Eagle Trivia
There are lots of cool things you can learn about Bald Eagles. Here’s a few!
- Did you know that Bald Eagles can have a wingspan that is as much as 8 feet across?? That’s bigger than the grown-ups in your family!
- A baby Bald Eagle is known as an Eaglet. Eaglets usually stay in their nest until they are about three months old.
- Bald Eagles build really big nests – most are about five or six feet across. The largest known Bald Eagle nest was about nine feet across and almost 12 feet high!
