How Long Do Eagles Live? Eagle Lifespan in the Wild

Eagle lifespan at a glance

Lifespans are hard to measure in the wild, so the most reliable figures come from banding (ringing) records, where birds marked as chicks are later found again. These are commonly cited figures for three well-studied eagles:

The bald eagle record belongs to a bird banded as a chick in New York in 1977 and found dead after a collision with a car in 2015. The golden eagle records come from a Swedish bird recovered 32 years after it was ringed and a North American bird that reached 31 years and 8 months.

Why big eagles live so long

Lifespan in birds tends to rise with body size. Small falcons and hawks may lose 30–50% of their population every year, medium-sized hawks around 15–25%, and large eagles and vultures often 5% or less once they are adults. With few natural enemies, an adult eagle mainly has to avoid starvation, accidents and people.

Long life goes hand in hand with slow breeding. Bald eagles normally do not breed until they are 4 or 5, golden eagles at around 4 to 6 years, and both raise only one to three chicks a year. The harpy eagle is even slower: a pair usually raises a single chick every two to three years. A species that breeds this slowly can only persist because its adults survive for a long time, which also makes eagles vulnerable when adult deaths rise.

Adult survival can be remarkably high. On the Isle of Skye in Scotland, around 97.5% of territorial adult golden eagles were estimated to survive each year, and some studies of adult bald eagles in Florida found nearly all adults surviving from one year to the next.

The dangerous first years

The average lifespan of an eagle is much shorter than its potential lifespan because so many die young. In many bald eagle studies, only around half of young birds survive their first year. Golden eagles can fare worse: in one study in the western Rocky Mountains, half of the birds banded as nestlings were dead by about two and a half years old, and an estimated 75% died before age 5.

Young eagles are inexperienced hunters, often rely on scavenging and wander over huge areas without a territory. Starvation in the first winter, collisions and electrocution are common causes of death. Eggs and nestlings are also lost to storms that topple nests, to sibling aggression when food is short, and to predators such as raccoons, ravens and great horned owls.

What kills adult eagles today

For adult eagles in North America and Europe, most deaths are linked to people:

• Collisions: vehicles (often while eagles feed on roadkill), power lines, wind turbines and fences.
• Electrocution: large eagles can touch two wires at once when they land on power poles.
• Lead poisoning: eagles that scavenge carcasses or gut piles left from hunting can swallow lead ammunition fragments, and lead tackle can also be eaten along with fish.
• Illegal shooting and poisoning, which still occur despite strong legal protection.

A US study of 1,490 bald eagle deaths in Michigan between 1986 and 2017 found that about 36% were caused by vehicle collisions and about 12% by lead poisoning, with both increasing over time. For harpy eagles in Central and South America, the main threats are forest clearance and shooting.

How long do other birds of prey live?

Eagles are among the longest-lived birds of prey, though not the only ones. Large vultures and condors can also live for decades. Medium-sized raptors live less long: many wild red-tailed hawks die within their first few years, though the oldest known one reached about 30. See how long do hawks live? for more.

Ospreys, which are about a third the weight of a bald eagle, can live 15 to 20 years or more, and the oldest known wild birds have passed 25. Barn owls and other small owls usually live only a few years in the wild.

The myth of the eagle’s “rebirth” at 40

A story shared widely online claims that eagles live up to 70 years, but at age 40 must retreat to a mountain, knock off their beak, pull out their talons and feathers, and wait five months to regrow them. It is often used as a motivational parable.

None of it is true. No eagle has been recorded living anywhere near 70 years, and an eagle that destroyed its own beak and talons would quickly starve. Eagles do replace their feathers, but gradually, through normal molting over a year or two, so they can keep flying and hunting the whole time. A bird’s beak also grows and wears continuously, like a fingernail, without any dramatic “renewal”.