Editing Bald eagle (section)

==Taxonomy==
[[File:Bald Eagle Portrait.jpg|thumb|upright|left|Closeup of the eponymous white head]]
The bald eagle is placed in the genus ''Haliaeetus'' ([[sea eagle]]s), and gets both its common and specific scientific names from the distinctive appearance of the adult's head. ''Bald'' in the English name is from an older usage meaning "having white on the face or head" rather than "hairless", referring to the white head feathers contrasting with the darker body.<ref name="b7" /> 

The genus name is [[Neo-Latin]]: ''Haliaeetus'' (from the {{langx|grc|ἁλιάετος|haliaetos|sea eagle}}),<ref>{{LSJ|a(lia/etos|ἁλιάετος|longref}}</ref> and the specific name, ''leucocephalus'', is Latinized ({{langx|grc|λευκός|leukos|white}})<ref>{{LSJ|leuko/s2|λευκός|shortref}}</ref> and ({{langx|grc|κεφαλή|kephalḗ|head|label=none}}).<ref>{{LSJ|kefalh/|κεφαλή|shortref}}</ref><ref name="Georgia" />

The bald eagle was one of the many species originally described by [[Carl Linnaeus]] in his 18th-century work ''[[Systema Naturae]]'', under the name ''Falco leucocephalus''.<ref name="b3" />

The bald eagle forms a [[species pair]] with the [[white-tailed eagle]] of [[Eurasia]]. This species pair consists of a white-headed and a tan-headed species of roughly equal size; the white-tailed eagle also has overall somewhat paler brown body plumage. The two species fill the same [[ecological niche]] in their respective ranges. The pair diverged from other sea eagles at the beginning of the Early [[Miocene]] (c. 10&nbsp;[[Ma (unit)|Ma BP]]) at the latest, but possibly as early as the Early/Middle [[Oligocene]], 28 Ma BP, if the most ancient fossil record is correctly assigned to this [[genus]].<ref name="j2" />

=== Subspecies ===
There are two recognized [[subspecies]] of bald eagle:<ref name="hbw" /><ref name="ITIS" />
* ''H. l. leucocephalus'' <small>(Linnaeus, 1766)</small> is the nominate subspecies. It is found in the southern United States and [[Baja California Peninsula]].<ref name="ESRP" />
* ''H. l. washingtoniensis'' <small>(Audubon, 1827)</small>, synonym ''H. l. alascanus'' <small>(Townsend, 1897)</small>, the northern subspecies, is larger than southern nominate ''leucocephalus''. It is found in the northern United States, Canada and Alaska.<ref name="hbw" /><ref name="ESRP" />