While land birds are a more infrequently part of the diet, at least 60 species have been recorded in the white-tailed eagles prey spectrum. For the most part, land birds are taken so infrequently as to not warrant much mention. However, variable numbers of gamebirds are taken opportunistically, and in Belarus and Russia, especially around the White Sea where ptarmigan are not infrequent prey, they will take a few grouse. White-tailed eagles are known to prey on some numbers of ring-necked pheasant ("Phasianus colchicus") in Austria. They will at times attack adult male western capercaillie ("Tetrao urogallus"), of note for their large size at . However, this is dwarfed by the largest avian prey credited to a white-tailed eagle, an adult male great bustard ("Otis tarda"), which weighed an estimated (which, much like exceptionally large fish taken, must have been consumed in the killing spot or subsequently dismantled as too large to fly with). Among the land birds taken, more than 20 passerines are included in the prey spectrum but most are obviously too small and swift to be anything but incidental prey. The smallest avian prey known for white-tailed eagles was a great tit ("Parus major"), a species which weighs on average. On one hand, small bird prey may be under-recorded since they leave few conspicuous remains but, on the other, are unlikely worthy of much pursuit as they have little food value. However, in one case, a white-tailed eagle was seen to fly into a murmuration of Eurasian starlings ("Sturnus vulgaris") and come away with a starling in hand. The only passerine family taken in numbers would be the larger corvids, of which 8 species are known in the prey spectrum. In Hokkaido, Japan, two species of corvid were well-represented in the diet, the large-billed crow ("Corvus macrorhynchos") and the carrion crow ("Corvus corone"), which together comprised 14.8% of 533 prey items.