Steller’s Sea-Eagle found in Massachusetts
The spectacular raptor, whose home range is restricted to the Sea of Japan, the Sea of Okhotsk and the Kamchatka Peninsula, was found on the Taunton River in Massachusetts, south of Boston, on Monday.
The bird has been on an eastern odyssey having been previously seen in Alaska, as far south as Texas and prior to it’s Massachusetts stop, in Nova Scotia.
It was first seen in the United States along Alaska’s Denali Highway in August 2020. It was not seen again until July this year when it was seen in New Brunswick and Quebec, Canada. Then in November it was found near Falmouth, Nova Scotia.
Flight photos have confirmed that it is the same bird, shpwing a distinguishing white spot in the primaries. There are no flight photos from Texas so it has not been possible to confirm if this sighting involves the same bird.
British birder and co-author of Vagrancy in Birds, Dr.Alex Lees said: “Steller's Sea-Eagle is a vagrant anywhere in North America, with most records coming from islands in the Bering Sea region - which aren't that far as the eagle flies from their Russian breeding grounds in Kamchatka. One would anticipate that these vagrants would eventually wander back to their breeding grounds across the Bering Sea (some stayed for years in Alaska) but no-one expected one of these Alaskan vagrants to embark on a grand tour of the North American continent.”
Steller's Sea-eagle has previously occured as a transoceanic vagrant to the US when in February 1979 it turned up on Hawaiian atoll of Kure where it was observed predating an adult albatross, it later spent time on Midway atoll.
When asked if the recent record in the US makes it possible or likely that Steller's Sea-eagle could make it to Western Europe, Dr.Lees said: "Increasing birder coverage and increased use of tracking technologies have changed our understanding of the movements of raptors - helped by resurgent populations in many species. We know that extensive periods of 'extralimital' wandering is routine in raptors as phylogenetically, ecologically and physiologically different as Sakers and Spanish Imperial Eagles. We have records of Bald Eagles vagrating to Europe and Japan and both White-tailed Eagle and Steller's Sea-Eagle have reached the NW Hawaiian Islands – the specific epithet of ‘pelagicus’ wasn’t given to Steller’s on a whim!"
As for the possibility that European records involve escapes Dr. Lees said: "As with many raptors there is a non-negligible escape risk, but losing the world's heaviest eagle isn't like losing the remote control to your television; we should be able to keep track of known escapes and their movements better for most species. Given the epic movements of this latest individual in North America, the species should be considered a plausible vagrant to Europe."
22 Dec 2021
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