What did the Bald Eagles Evolve from? Who are their evolutionary ancestors?
You mean besides reptiles ?? Only half-kidding. According to Mark Stahlmaster’s wonderful book on bald eagles, the “sea eagles” of which the bald eagle is one of eight, began evolving tens of millions of years ago from a group of birds known as kites, which share many of the same characteristics of the sea eagles (fishing, scavenging, breeding). He states these ancient kites provided the genetic framework for an ancient sea eagle, which eventually evolved into eight separate sea eagle species. According to Mark, there are fossil remains of this ancient sea eagle at least 25 million years old. Although we don’t know precisely when the white-headed sea eagle (our bald eagle) evolved, there are numerous fossil remains, some from North America as long as one million years ago. Bald eagles are in the order “Falconiformes” (including most raptors except owls), and the family “Accipitridae”, which includes 205 species of eagles, hawks, kites, old world vultures and harriers.
