Steller's Sea Eagle

Steller's Sea Eagle (Haliaeetus pelagicus) is an exceptionally large dark-brown sea eagle with a huge yellow bill and bold white shoulders, tail and leg feathers in adults. Body shape, bill structure, plumage pattern and voice provide the strongest field characters. Age, sex and season may alter its appearance, so identification should combine several features and careful direct field comparisons with similar species in the same habitat (Wikipedia, general species account).

It concentrates along coasts and large rivers of north-eastern Asia, taking fish and waterbirds and scavenging carrion; many birds winter around northern East Asia. Its movements and social behaviour vary through the year, with breeding birds generally more dispersed and non-breeding birds gathering where food is concentrated. The Korean vertebrate catalogue used for this guide records the species in South Korea (Wikipedia, general species account; Wildlife of Korea occurrence records).