In the Field

Eagle City, BC. Great Bear Rainforest, British Columbia. September 28, 2026

If you're lucky enough to visit an estuary in the Great Bear Rainforest in the autumn when the salmon are running you WILL see Bald Eagles, and likely a LOT of them. If you look at the larger version of this image (4800 pixels across - linked below) you'll see there's a minimum of 10 of them in this shot. If I took my time examining the full resolution version of the image (9986 pixels across) I'd probably find a half dozen more. This gorgeous estuary is definitely "Eagle City".

I captured this image during my "Autumn in the Great Bear Rainforest" Exploratory Photo Adventure in September of 2026. I was testing some new gear combinations on this trip, notably the high resolution (67 MP) Sony A7R VI camera and Sony's new FE 100-400mm f4.5 GM OSS lens. As a lover of animalscape shots (like this one) I was very curious about how this gear combination would pan out as, at least on paper, it looked to be a near optimal solution for animalscapes. Long story short - it did not disappoint! The lens is tack sharp (edge-to-edge!) at all focal lengths and all apertures, including at 400mm. This image was captured just past "half-way" in its focal length range - at 282mm. Oh, and that is rain in the background (hey, it's a rainforest!), not image noise.

Anyway...based on how well this gear combination worked for my in late 2026 I can honestly say I am real excited about getting back to the Khutzeymateen and Great Bear Rainforest in 2027.

Here's a larger version (4800 pixel) of this eagle paradise:

• Eagle City, BC: Download 4800 pixel image (JPEG: 5.7 MB)

ADDITIONAL NOTES:

1. These images - in all resolutions - are protected by copyright. I'm fine with personal uses of them (including use as desktop backgrounds or screensavers on your own computer), but unauthorized commercial use of the image is prohibited by law. Thanks in advance for respecting my copyright!

2. Like all photographs on this website, these images were captured following the strict ethical guidelines described in The Wildlife FIRST! Principles of Photographer Conduct. As such, no baiting or any form of attractant was used and, as always, we attempted to minimize our impact on the ongoing behaviour of the subjects. I strongly encourage all wildlife photographers to always put the welfare of their subjects above the value of their photographs.

3. This image was captured during my Autumn in the Great Bear Exploratory Photo Adventure in early Autumn of 2026. Each year I offer photo tours into various locations on the amazing BC coast, including the Great Bear Rainforest and, every other year, into the Khutzeymateen Grizzly Sanctuary (to photograph grizzlies, of course!). Details about these trips can be found on the Photo Tours page of this website.

Behind the Camera

Eagle City, BC. Great Bear Rainforest, British Columbia. September 28, 2026

Compressed RAW (ARW) format; ISO 500.

Sony A7R VI paired with Sony FE 100-400mm f4.5 GM OSS lens @ 282mm. Hand-held from floating Zodiac inflatable boat. OSS on and set to Mode 1. Expand Spot (tracking) AF area mode with subject recognition mode set to Bird.

1/400s @ f5; -1.3 stop compensation from multi-metered exposure setting.

At the Computer

Eagle City, BC. Great Bear Rainforest, British Columbia. September 28, 2026

Initial noise reduction and capture sharpening on the .arw (raw) file using the DeepPRIME XD3 algorithm of DXO PhotoLab 10.1 Elite (using the appropriate camera/lens module).

Subsequent adjustments to the adjusted linear DNG file (exported from PhotoLab) and conversion to 16-bit TIFF file (and JPEG files for web use) - including all global and selective adjustments - made using Capture One Pro (build 16.8). In the case of this image I made just one global adjustment - a slight raising of the blacks. Selective local adjustments performed using Capture One Pro's layers and masking tools. In this case numerous small adjustments and minor tweaks were made on 4 separate layers, with the tweaks being associated with "exposure balancing" and contrast adjustments (such as adjustments to brightness, clarity, highlights, shadows, blacks, etc.).

Photoshop modifications included insertion of the watermark and/or text.

Conservation

Eagle City, BC. Great Bear Rainforest, British Columbia. September 28, 2026

General Conservation Status in Canada*: Secure

The Bald Eagle (Haliaeetus leucocephalus) is a very large bird of prey with broad wings. Adults possess characteristic white ("bald") heads. It takes Bald Eagles a full five years to attain their characteristic adult plumage (including their nearly pure white head and tail). In the years prior to the development of their adult plumage they are easy to confuse with Golden Eagles. Being very broad-winged Bald Eagles are able to use an energy-efficient flapping-soaring style of flight. While many people like to think of the Bald Eagle as a fierce hunter, in reality they hunt only as a last resort. More commonly they scavenge for their prey. Additionally, they often klepto-parasitize other weaker species such as Osprey, commonly stealing the other species hard-earned prey items.

*as listed by Wild Species Canada (wildspecies.ca)