Every winter, I begin to look forward to guiding clients on one the Hokkaido Birding Photo Tours planned during the season.  My expeditions have become so popular, that I'm even staying extra days to accommodate extended private tours along the Pacific Coastline to view bird species such as the Red-crowned cranes or Whooper swans, but along the coastline, the star of a Hokkaido Birding Photo Tour is The Steller’s Sea Eagle.

What makes The Steller’s Sea Eagle such a tantalizing photographic subject for clients?

Part of the reason is their growing rarity.  The Steller’s Sea Eagle have been put on a list International Union for Conservation of Nature’s list as vulnerable and have been put on the red list by the IUCN because of their decrease in numbers.  The Steller’s Sea Eagle also tend to occupy a small section of the globe.  The eagles occupy a small section of Russian claimed Kuril Islands that extend off of the Kamchatka Peninsula.  The eagles’ domain extends down into Blain Harasymiw Photography territory, Hokkaido, and as the lead photography workshop guide, I know all the locations in Hokkaido that the eagles call home during the winter season, so no matter how scarce the number, you will have access to the photos of a lifetime.

Another feature that makes The Steller’s Sea Eagle such a magnificent subject are its natural gifts.  The eagles stand between three and three and half feet tall, one of the largest raptors in the world.  However, what makes them a photographic spectacle is their wingspan.  I have visited Hokkaido as a photo tour leader for more than two decades, and I have to confess that every year when I see the first Steller’s Sea Eagle spread its wings wide as it soars the winds along the Hokkaido coastline, I take just a moment to appreciate the majesty and nobility of such a breathtaking photo op.  After drinking in the first image, I begin to fill memory card after memory card of The Steller’s Sea Eagle patrolling the pack ice for food or swooping down into the ice itself when it spots prey.  Considering the median wingspan of The Steller’s Sea Eagle is more than two meters (approximately 7 feet), so while on your Japan Photo Tour, you’ll be able to seize the eagles fully extending their wings.  If you are lucky, and if I spy one of the larger eagles in the convocation, there have been recorded instances of wingspans up to 2.5 meters, nearly 8 feet!  That image alone could be the centerpiece of any photographer’s birding portfolio.

The final Steller’s Sea Eagle appeal comes in two parts, their plumage and their role as hunters.  While participating in a Hokkaido Birding Photo Tour, clients will be able to distinguish The Steller’s Sea Eagle from the other birds by the dark brown, sometimes black plumage as the pore over the pack ice in search of fish, their main diet. Their dark plumage sets them off against the starkly white pack ice as well as the azure of the Sea of Okhotsk.  There will be plenty of photo ops as the eagles dive into the crevices in the pack ice.  I have been so close to them on tours that I heard and photographed an eagle tearing a caught fish into pieces for easier digestion.  The dynamism of The Steller’s Sea Eagle cannot be overstated.  It is a bird that you simply must see when visiting Hokkaido.