Pygargue à tête blanche vs Common Mourning Bee

Haliaeetus leucocephalus compared with Melecta albifrons

Taxonomic Classification

Rank	Pygargue à tête blanche	Common Mourning Bee
Kingdom same	Animalia (animal)	Animalia (animal)
Phylum	Chordata (Chordates)	Arthropoda (arthropodes)
Class	Aves (oiseau)	Insecta (insecte)
Order	Accipitriformes (Hawks & Eagles)	Hymenoptera (Ants, Bees & Wasps)
Family	Accipitridae (Hawks & Eagles)	Apidae (Bees)
Genus	Haliaeetus (Sea Eagles)	Melecta
Species	Haliaeetus leucocephalus	Melecta albifrons

Evolutionary Relationship

Pygargue à tête blanche and Common Mourning Bee share a common ancestor at the Kingdom level: Animalia. (animal)

Conservation Status

Pygargue à tête blanche

NE — Not Evaluated

Population: ~316.7K

Trend: Increasing ↑

Common Mourning Bee

NE — Not Evaluated

Physical Characteristics

Attribute	Pygargue à tête blanche	Common Mourning Bee
Diet	Carnivore	—
Average Lifespan	28 years	—
Average Length	90 cm	—
Average Weight	5.0 kg	—

Habitat & Geographic Range

Pygargue à tête blanche

Habitat

Found across multiple habitat types including tropical and subtropical moist broadleaf forests, tropical and subtropical dry broadleaf forests, and flooded grasslands and savannas, among 10 distinct biome types spanning the Neotropic and Palearctic realms. Populations are also found in montane and highland environments at higher elevations.

Range

Widely distributed across Europe (8 countries), North America (United States), and South America (Ecuador).

Common Mourning Bee

Habitat

Typically found in virtually all terrestrial and freshwater habitats.

Range

Distributed across Belgium, Denmark, Luxembourg, and Sweden.

Pygargue à tête blanche

The national bird of the United States and a symbol of American conservation success, bald eagles have a wingspan of up to 2.4 meters and inhabit forests and wetlands near open water across North America. Powerful aerial predators and scavengers, they specialize in fish but also take waterfowl and carrion. Nearly extinct by the 1960s due to DDT poisoning and hunting, the bald eagle recovered dramatically following pesticide bans and the Endangered Species Act.

Common Mourning Bee

<em>Melecta albifrons</em>, the common mourning bee, is a solitary bee in the family Apidae, tribe Melectini. This species is a cleptoparasite, meaning it lays its eggs in the nests of other bee species rather than constructing its own nests or provisioning them with pollen. <em>Melecta albifrons</em> typically targets the nests of mining bees in the genus Anthophora, which are ground-nesting species common across Europe. The mourning bee is named for its dark, somber coloration punctuated by white or pale hair patches, giving it a distinctive appearance. Its geographic range includes temperate Europe, with recorded occurrences in Belgium, Denmark, Luxembourg, and Sweden, typically in habitats where its Anthophora hosts are present, including gardens, hedgerows, meadows, and areas with bare sandy or clay soils. The species has not been formally evaluated under the IUCN Red List framework. Biological traits such as lifespan, body size, and diet remain poorly documented for this species beyond its known cleptoparasitic behavior. Conservation of <em>Melecta albifrons</em> is closely linked to maintaining healthy populations of its host bee species, and broader pollinator-friendly habitat management.

Shared Countries

Both species can be found in 3 countries:

🇧🇪 Belgium 🇩🇰 Denmark 🇸🇪 Sweden