It takes bald eagles about five years to obtain their white head! These pictures are of the same bird taken years apart, illustrating the difference between juvenile and subadult plumage.

Source: [https://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Bald_Eagle/id](https://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Bald_Eagle/id)

Pictured is Penny, an educational ambassador at the American Eagle Foundation. Penny will be 4 this year. As she continues to mature, her head and tail will progressively become more white, and her beak will become a bright yellow. As many have noted, her eyes will lighten to a light gold or amber hue.

Edit: Wow! It’s great to see that everyone loves Penny just as much as we do! Because of this, I’m sharing a bit more information. We are a federally permitted non-profit facility, which is how we are allowed to care for her. It’s illegal to keep native raptors without permits.

Penny is non-releasable because she was caught in a trap and lost several toes, which would prevent her from hunting effectively in the wild. She was entrusted to our care shortly thereafter, and she helps with educational programs about conserving and protecting bald eagles (and all birds of prey).

Here’s her bio (along with some toe pics): [https://www.eagles.org/meet-our-birds/bald-eagles/penny/](https://www.eagles.org/meet-our-birds/bald-eagles/penny/)

I‘m trying to figure out if the bird couple that lives in my yard are Eagles or Osprey.

I read up on it last night, and today I plan to take the binoculars out to see if I can spot any of the distinguishing markers (beak, chest, talons, and wing formation differences) that I read about.

Ones in my yard are def adults bc they have babies every year. Never get to see the babies.

Thanks for the closeup pic, I can use it to help in identifying them!

Balding at 5yo? I’ll never complain again about the chrome creeping throughout my dome.

Damn, she looks majestic

This confused early ornithologists so much that juvenile balls eagles were thought to be their own species and named the Washington eagle.

Edit: ha! BALD eagle, not balls.

The eye color changes or is that lighting difference?

Just like people except it takes 50 years not 5

I always thought it was weird that this bird is “bald” and not like “white-crested” or something

The “bald” part of Penny’s head is like a crown. I can understand why the US chose this eagle as their emblem, rather than the more common basic eagles seen elsewhere in Europe.

Those awkward teenage years…

Nice cat

I wonder if they know that their appearance is changing

I love the young eagles!

Its funny, tourists flock here to Alaska in hopes of catching a glimps of an eagle when all they have to do is take a trip to the dump. Theres literally hundreds sitting in the trees, lookin for some sweet garbage to munch.

Same thing happens to seagulls I believe

*red tail hawk screech*

I used to leave my husky’s hair out for birds (not that I had to, they’d just come get it themselves). He passed away, and then I found a nest that heavily was relying on his hair with some eggs in it. It was bittersweet 🙂

Wow this answers a question that I’ve had for a few years. Once while I was driving to work, I saw this massive bird eating a deer that had been hit by a car. Looked exactly like the first picture. At the time I couldn’t really decide what it was lol

Geralt is that you?

Subadult Plumage is a great name for a metal band

“subadult”

me

Oh so it’s like baby teeth to adult teeth? I never knew that.. very cool

We were wondering this exact question last night. Been watching a trio of this year’s babies. I’ll take a wild guess and say they’ll fledge long before they turn white!

https://explore.org/livecams/bald-eagles/decorah-eagles

The juvenile looks just like a golden eagle! How would one go about telling them apart?

the henry cavill of birds

The beak changed aswell. Strong looking bird.