How much does the wing of an eagle weigh?

[5P@N]

I have scoured the internet, and thus far have been unable to find this data. I want to know how much an eagle wing weighs. I realize there are different species, but all I am concerned about is the weight of the wing of any eagle species. It's easy enough to find the total weight of the whole animal. Could someone help me out?

 

[DaveC426913]

Since eagles even of the same species come in all sizes, it isn't a meaningful question unless you either specify the size of bird, or accept merely a ratio of wing-to-animal.

 

[5P@N]

ratio of wing to animal will do.

 

[DaveC426913]

Young? Adult?

Degree of accuracy? Why not just guess? Eagles weight in at just 4-6 kg. The wing will surely be less than half but more than a quarter of that.

 

[5P@N]

adult please.

I don't like to just guess.

Or perhaps you could suggest to me where or how to search out this information? I've been googling ad nauseum, and still have nothing.

 

[DaveC426913]

I don't like to just guess.

What I'm getting at is that the question borders on intractable. Your best guess is likely more suited to your purpose than some specific species with some specific weight. You might be lucky to find an approximate weight ratio of wing-to-body of an average generic bird - but how accurate is that?

In other words, you may be the first one to define this - you may be a pioneer in this venture.Some interesting stuff here:
http://people.eku.edu/ritchisong/554notes2.html
Some charts near the bottom show where eagles fit in the loading vs. aspect space.

 

[berkeman]

I have scoured the internet, and thus far have been unable to find this data. I want to know how much an eagle wing weighs. I realize there are different species, but all I am concerned about is the weight of the wing of any eagle species. It's easy enough to find the total weight of the whole animal. Could someone help me out?

I googled eagle anatomy wing weight and got some pretty good looking hits. I only skimmed the top level of the hit list, but there were hits that gave the weight of eagle feathers at least, and I'm guessing there will be weights of the bones as well. Can you try that search and see if it turns up anything new for you?

 

[jim mcnamara]

Haliaeetus leucocephalus - American bald eagle - dried, with attached feathers and some ceremonial wool strings, from an immature male, weight 258 grams.
The sample was from a section of the wing starting at the proximal end of the metacarpal - where the carpal bone sits. This was from a now returned collection of artifacts that were in the Saint Michaels Historical Musuem. Males are smaller then females.

So this value is for most of the feathers and thin bones plus dried tissue. Some feathers were damaged. I helped catalog a collection about 40+ years ago,
http://www.stmichaelshm.org/history.htm

What the heck are you trying to do? And why do you not connect with somebody at the Smithsonian who can probably give you real data? If it were me,
I would not use this data for anything except interest.

 

[SteamKing]

Haliaeetus leucocephalus - American bald eagle - dried, with attached feathers and some ceremonial wool strings, from an immature male, weight 258 grams.
The sample was from a section of the wing starting at the proximal end of the metacarpal - where the carpal bone sits. This was from a now returned collection of artifacts that were in the Saint Michaels Historical Musuem. Males are smaller then females.

So this value is for most of the feathers and thin bones plus dried tissue. Some feathers were damaged. I helped catalog a collection about 40+ years ago,
http://www.stmichaelshm.org/history.htm

What the heck are you trying to do? And why do you not connect with somebody at the Smithsonian who can probably give you real data? If it were me,
I would not use this data for anything except interest.

Sometimes, it's better not to ask for details.

 

[5P@N]

BAM! Found it!

http://my.kwic.com/~pagodavista/schoolhouse/species/birds/body.htm

And I quote: "A female Bald eagle can have wings that are almost 8 feet long (243 centimeters) - and yet, the wings weigh less than 2 pounds (900 grams)."

Thank you berkeman. The solution was merely to more narrowly specify my search terms.

Some are curious as to what I'll do with such knowledge. Well...

MWA HA HA HA HA!