In the Field

Peekaboo! Juvenile Bald Eagle. Great Bear Rainforest, British Columbia. September 27, 2026.

It's pretty darned hard not to occasionally point your camera at Bald Eagles when you visit the Great Bear Rainforest, especially when the salmon are running. Like almost everyone, initially I was drawn to photographing the white-head adults. But over time I almost became bored of shooting adult eagles - to me they all look pretty much identical! But the juveniles vary a lot - both between individuals of the same age and within individuals over time (it takes a Bald Eagle around 5 years to attain their definitive adult plumage with white head and tail). This juvenile is most likely a very young bird (hatched 4-5 months prior to the photo capture date), though from this image (and others in the sequence) it's not possible to age it conclusively (it COULD be a second year bird, so in the neigbourhood of 16-17 months). The aging estimate is based on its uniformly dark head, mainly dark bill, brown tail, and relatively fresh-looking flight feathers.

Anyway...I captured this image using the high-resolution (67 MP) Sony A7R VI paired with the FE 100-400mm f4.5 zoom lens (at 400mm). At the beginning of the photo tour I captured this image on I was a bit skeptical that this combination of gear would focus sufficiently fast to reliably capture flight shots to the standard I had been used to. After all, the A7R VI is NOT Sony's flagship camera and I have found most zoom lenses don't focus quite as fast as the best prime lenses.

Well...this image sequence, as well as many others that followed during the photo tour, convinced me I was giving up pretty much nothing in AF performance with the A7R VI plus FE 100-400mm f4.5 combination. It's definitely good enough for me!

Here's a larger version (4800 pixel) of this compelling juvenile Bald Eagle:

• Peekaboo! Juvenile Bald Eagle: Download 4800 pixel image (JPEG: 3.4 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

Peekaboo! Juvenile Bald Eagle. Great Bear Rainforest, British Columbia. September 27, 2026.

Compressed RAW (ARW) format; ISO 1600.

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

1/2000s @ f4.5; -1.0 stop compensation from multi-metered exposure setting.

At the Computer

Peekaboo! Juvenile Bald Eagle. Great Bear Rainforest, British Columbia. September 27, 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 three global adjustments - a reduction in highlights, a lifting of the blacks, and an overall contrast adjustment using the Levels tool. 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 5 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

Peekaboo! Juvenile Bald Eagle. Great Bear Rainforest, British Columbia. September 27, 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)