An eagle with a massive yellow bill. It breeds along the northern Sea of Okhotsk and winters in places including northern Japan.
Adults have conspicuous white shoulder feathers against dark plumage, with a bright yellow bill and feet.
Steller’s sea eagles can forage beside openings in frozen waters. At lakes and inland bays in Hokkaido, eagles perched on ice around open water and attempted to catch fish. As winter progressed toward spring, their distribution between fishing and non-fishing sites changed.
A 2001 paper reported counts at 71 sites in northern and eastern Hokkaido from November 1991 to April 1992. In mid-February, many eagles gathered at ice-fishing sites and ate discarded small fish. By early March, densities differed little between fishing and non-fishing sites; in late March, more gathered at non-fishing sites. By mid-April, most surveyed waters were ice-free, and many eagles were counted at places retaining some ice. The author interpreted partly thawed waters as natural feeding sites that could provide opportunities beyond fishery discards.
An extinction-risk assessment has not been added yet.
Lead poisoning from feeding on animals containing ammunition fragments is a conservation concern for Steller’s sea eagles in Hokkaido. A 2020 study examined carcass liver samples collected from June 2015 to May 2018; nine of 34 Hokkaido Steller’s sea eagles exceeded the study’s poisoning threshold. Ammunition fragments recovered from two eagles’ stomachs matched the lead-isotope ratios in those same birds’ livers. The authors recommended switching to non-lead ammunition and continuing surveillance of lead in wild birds.