White-tailed eagles usually live most of the year near large bodies of open water, including both coastal saltwater areas and inland freshwater, including wetlands, lakes, bogs and rivers, and require an abundant food supply and old-growth trees or ample sea cliffs for nesting. This raptor is both a powerful apex predator and an opportunistic scavenger, mainly subsisting on fish and birds (largely water birds) amongst nearly any other available prey. They are considered a close cousin of the bald eagle ("Haliaeetus leucocephalus"), which occupies a similar niche in North America.