A rare sea eagle
One of our Steller's sea eagles, Legolas, is a rare color variant, that is called dark Steller's.
Usually only young Steller’s sea eagles are completely dark brown. When they are 4-5 years old, they will have their adult plumage with white parts on the front of the wings, white “pants”, a completely white tail as well as a small white spot on their forehead.
Here in the park, we were very much looking forward to the eagles turning 4 years in 2018, so we could see them fully colored as full-grown sea eagles. That’s why we also wondered when only one of the eagles, Gandalf, started to change color. Legolas, on the other hand, continued to wear the same very dark brown uniform-colored plumage – if you ignore his fine white tail.