Rare white-tailed sea eagle spotted in Suffolk

A rare white-tailed sea eagle has been spotted in Britain. The bird landed on a small island in Suffolk – almost 80 years after the last one was seen in the area.

A white-tailed sea eagle. Image by Marie Hale / CC BY 2.0

A keen bird-watcher living in the Mickle Mere Reserve, Paul Haines, said it was a ‘wow’ moment and believed the eagle may have been blown off course from Europe due to recent high winds.

A member of the Suffolk Wildlife Trust, Giles Cawston, said that as the bird did not stick around for long, only about half a dozen people saw it, the BBC reported.

He described it as an ‘incredibly rare sighting’ which surprised the other species on the reserve but left the birders over the moon.