Steller’s sea-eagles may be one of the rarest raptors in the world. Very little is known about these birds of prey, due to the remote nature of their primary habitat. They breed on the Kamchatka Peninsula, the coastal area around the Sea of Okhotsk, the lower reaches of the Amur River, and on northern Sakhalin and the Shantar islands of Russia. They spend much of the warm season in this region, and some stay here year round.

Many others migrate slightly southward for the winter to the southern Kuril Islands and to Hokkaido, Japan, where food is more plentiful. But that's it! This is the only region of the world where this species is found.

Like most other predators, Steller’s sea-eagles use binocular vision to precisely pinpoint the location of their lunch. Both eyes are set on the front of the bird’s head and focus on the same thing, providing depth perception. This is an important tool if you are diving more than 100 feet (30 meters) while trying to catch your food!

Steller’s sea-eagles spend much of their day perched up high, their eyes on the lookout for food. Like bald eagles and brown bears, the eagles take full advantage of the annual salmon run to gorge themselves on the spawning and dying fish. Steller’s sea-eagles are also known to hunt while flying and take small mammals, fish, and seabirds by swooping down and catching them with their talons. These eagles have even been seen standing in shallow water or on the ice, grabbing fish as they swim by. Like other eagles, Steller’s also steal food from other birds; this is known as kleptoparasitism.

Sea-eagle nests are called aeries, and they are built high in dead or open-topped trees near rivers or on rocky cliffs up to 100 feet (30 meters) above ground. These open sites give the birds easy access to and from their nests. Typically, a pair returns to the same nest each year and adds a little more to it to prepare for the season’s clutch, but pairs sometimes build and oversee more than one aerie and choose which one to use each spring.

Aeries can be 6 to 8 feet (1.8 to 2.4 meters) wide and can weigh hundreds of pounds. It is not uncommon for a nest to grow so heavy that the branches it sits in break and the nest comes crashing to the ground.

Steller’s sea-eagles make a deep barking cry, ra-ra-ra-raurau. During breeding season, they make calls that sound like very loud seagulls. Courtship occurs during late winter, and the female starts laying greenish white eggs in mid-spring. One to three eggs are laid; usually only one chick survives, but two and even three babies have been raised successfully. Chicks are altricial, with downy gray feathers that gradually change to brown. The young learn to fly when they are about 10 weeks old. It takes about five years for young sea-eagles to reach sexual maturity and attain their striking adult plumage: dark body with a bright white forehead, shoulders, tail, and thighs.