Pygargue à tête blanche vs Wilson's Filmy Fern

Haliaeetus leucocephalus compared with Hymenophyllum wilsonii

Taxonomic Classification

Rank	Pygargue à tête blanche	Wilson's Filmy Fern
Kingdom	Animalia (animal)	Plantae (plante)
Phylum	Chordata (Chordates)	Tracheophyta
Class	Aves (oiseau)	Polypodiopsida (Filicopsida)
Order	Accipitriformes (Hawks & Eagles)	Hymenophyllales (Hymenophyllales)
Family	Accipitridae (Hawks & Eagles)	Hymenophyllaceae
Genus	Haliaeetus (Sea Eagles)	Hymenophyllum
Species	Haliaeetus leucocephalus	Hymenophyllum wilsonii

Conservation Status

Pygargue à tête blanche

NE — Not Evaluated

Population: ~316.7K

Trend: Increasing ↑

Wilson's Filmy Fern

NE — Not Evaluated

Physical Characteristics

Attribute	Pygargue à tête blanche	Wilson's Filmy Fern
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).

Wilson's Filmy Fern

Habitat

Typically found in moist, shaded forest floors and tropical canopies.

Range

Distributed across Iceland, Norway, Portugal, 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.