Sea eagles seen flying over cities more often

Their name might suggest that you'd be most likely to see a sea eagle in a coastal area, but many recent sightings have actually been over cities.

This is backed up by tracking data, taken by satellite tags attached to the birds.

Also known as white-tailed eagles, one has recently been seen flying over the Houses of Parliament, along the South Bank and over Blackfriars Bridge in London.

Others have been spotted in Birmingham in the midlands, Dartford Crossing in the south of England, and Scotland's capital Edinburgh.

The birds are the biggest eagles native to the UK, as well as the largest in Europe and the fourth largest in the world.

But they were wiped out of England completely in 1780 and Scotland by 1918.

Efforts to reintroduce them to Scotland have taken a lot of perseverance, with 10 years of trying before the first chick successfully fledged in Scotland.

They have also now been successfully reintroduced in England, and eagles released in the Isle of Wight have gone on to establish territories in Wales, Lincolnshire, Dorset and Sussex.

Conservation efforts to protect them have gone much better than anyone expected.

The tracking technology allows experts at the Roy Dennis Wildlife Foundation and Forestry England to plot exactly where the eagles are re-establishing themselves.

Dr Tim Mackrill is a part of the team, and says although the eagle sightings are rare, he's often heard many stories of many appearing in other European cities.

He explained: "There's that romantic view of an eagle in the wilderness - but they are on the outskirts of Rotterdam and in Hamburg. There's a pair in Helsinki city centre.

"If you went to Germany, Denmark, the Netherlands, it's normal for them to be in these kind of [metropolitan] areas. We're just catching up."