Why would a white-tailed eagle visit Switzerland

We’ve visited Scotland several times, and one of the most impressive birds we’ve seen there quite regularly is the white-tailed eagle.

White-tailed eagle at Loch Laich, Scotland

The story of the Scottish sea eagles is a uplifting one. Pretty much all sea eagles were persecuted around the turn of the 20th century, and in Scotland the last known surviving eagle was shot in Shetland.

Reintroduction was started in 1975 on the Isle of Rum, with birds from Norway. 10 years later, the first chick hatched on the Isle of Mull. In 2015, the number of breeding pairs in Scotland reached 100.

Apart from Scotland, sea eagle breed along the coast of Scandinavia, but also Denmark, German (North and East), Austria (recolonized recently), Slovakia, Hungary and the Czech Republic. The breeding area closest to Switzerland might be northern Croatia.

So why would a sea eagle ever show up in Switzerland?

The first few years, sea eagles move around quite a bit. Furthermore, some sea eagles move to wintering grounds, with some small pockets eg. at Etang de Lindre (France), near Strasbourg or west-central Italy. Birds seen in Switzerland occur typically between October and March, with only a handful of sightings outside of that time frame.

White-tailed eagle (with red kite) at Flachsee, Switzerland

So, typically birds seen in Switzerland are immature, and either moving towards one of the few wintering sites South of Switzerland, or simply roaming around (as teenagers like to do). But with typically one or two birds seen annually, every sighting is truly special.