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White-tailed Eagle (Haliaeetus albicilla)Distribution and seasonality in the UK

Resident · reporting peaks August · Kites, Old World Vultures, Eagles, and Hawks · BOU category AC3E*F

Records to 2026-08-16 · build 2026-08-31

White-tailed Eagle (Haliaeetus albicilla)
Ferdinando sacchetti, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons
Peak months
White-tailed Eagle: relative reporting rate by 10 km square, September

Contains OS data © Crown copyright and database right 2026 (grid squares, place names from OS Open Names). Northern Ireland place names: OSNI Open Data, OGL v3.0. County and country boundaries: Office for National Statistics, Open Government Licence v3.0. Coastline: Natural Earth. Bird records from the data partners listed here.

White-tailed Eagle has been recorded in 507 of the 2,971 10 km squares covering UK land (17%) in records to 2026. Resident in the UK. Its strongest squares are in Scotland, England and Northern Ireland. Reporting peaks in August.

Conservation status: Least Concern (IUCN Red List, LC)
View on the IUCN Red List

This species is protected under Schedule 1 of the Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981. It is an offence to disturb it at or near the nest without a licence. Breeding-season distribution is not shown and square-level counts are withheld.

Relative to this species' best squares (how classes are calculated)
Very high
100% or more of visits
High
22% to 100%
Moderate
4% to 22%
Low
under 4%
Surveyed, not recorded
at least 20 qualifying visits, no record
Insufficient records
too few visits to say
Not shown in the breeding season
sensitive breeding species
Lighter fill
Few visits, lower confidence
Small dot
Occasional: a single record, or out of season

Seasonality

Reporting rate by month, relative to the peak month
MonthRelative to peakShare of visitsTypical class
January 54%<1%Low
February 26%<1%Insufficient records
March 38%<1%Insufficient records
April 39%<1%Insufficient records
May 25%<1%Insufficient records
June 26%<1%Insufficient records
July 29%<1%Insufficient records
August 100%<1%Very high
September 82%<1%Very high
October 81%<1%Very high
November 53%<1%Low
December 49%<1%Very high

Spotted an error in a square? Report it and it goes into the review queue. Read the methodology for how classes, flags and sensitive-species rules work. Data to 2026.