Look up! Look waaaay up!
Can you see any very large, dark birds flying high in the sky? Maybe just a few, maybe lots?
Two of the most common raptors you can find on Vancouver Island are bald eagles and turkey vultures. If you look carefully, even without binoculars, you might be able to tell them apart!
Bald Eagle
The bald eagle is the most common eagle you will find on Vancouver Island. By the time they are about four to five years old, they will have a large white head and white tail. Did you know that “bald” comes from an old English word that means white? An adult bald eagle’s head isn’t unfeathered; it’s white!
Young eagles appear a little bit bigger than their parents because their first feathers grow in very quickly and are a little longer than the adults’. Overall, they are brownish to black, with a range of white mottling and streaks. Young bald eagles start out brown, and for the next few years, as they molt their feathers, go through various stages until they have their fully white head and tail. In the meantime, they will have brown and white mottled bodies, head, tail and wings. If you see an eagle with white feathers in the wingpits, you are looking at a young bald eagle. They can also have dark feathers in the wingpits, so only the white ones are helpful for identification.
Bald eagles can be seen just about anywhere on the island but are most often found around the waterfront or near agricultural areas where they will catch gulls and waterfowl to eat. They are also scavengers and can be found near landfills and transfer stations. They often catch fish, and many gather at Goldstream Park in the fall to feast on the salmon there. If you see two adult bald eagles sitting close together, they probably have a nest in a nearby tree. The stick nests can be more than three metres across and two metres deep!
Bald eagles fly with their wings held straight out to the sides when they soar. They have a direct and often fast flight. When they fly over a beach or field, many of the ducks and gulls will take flight. If you ever see the birds on a beach or on the water take off all at once, look to see if you can find an eagle flying over or chasing them!
Turkey Vultures
Turkey vultures are about the same size as bald eagles, and can be easily mistaken for young eagles at a distance. They have mostly unfeathered heads which are black when they are young and red by the time they are one year old. While bald eagles nest in trees, turkey vultures nest on the ground under fallen rocks and trees.
Turkey vultures are almost exclusively scavengers. They will only eat dead (or nearly dead) animals. As such, they can usually fly over flocks of ducks and gulls without flushing them. Occasionally though, a nervous gull or duck will sound a false alarm and cause the flocks to rise.
Turkey vultures are expanding their range northward. A few of them now spend their winters on Vancouver Island, but most migrate to Mexico and South America.
Turkey vultures are great at soaring, but not very good at flapping. They hold their wings up slightly in a “V” when they soar. Think “V” for vulture to help remember this identification hint! This also causes them to teeter back and forth a little bit.
Every fall, migrating vultures gather along the southern coast of the island waiting for the conditions to be right to cross over the Juan de Fuca Strait. Hundreds of them can be seen flying in circles over rocky hilltops in places like East Sooke Park and Metchosin. They will spiral higher and higher in the sky until they think they have enough height to soar over to Washington State. This upward spiral is called a “kettle.” If they discover that they weren’t high enough to cross, they will turn around and try again. Once they have crossed, we won’t see them until the spring.
These species, and other raptors, can be seen migrating north in the late winter and spring, and south in the late summer and fall so keep looking up!
