New Forest residents have been treated to a flyover from the United Kingdom’s biggest bird of prey.

Daily Echo Camera Club member Jordan Callaghan managed to capture a white-tailed eagle soaring over Holbury, carrying what appears to be a rabbit through the air.

One photo managed to snap the bird’s huge wing span, which can reach up to 2.5 metres, in all its glory.

Jordan told the Daily Echo: "My adrenaline was going and I was shaking with excitement.

"I'm usually in that area looking for goshawks, kestrels and buzzards so it was a shock to see the eagle there."

White-tailed eagles can be told apart from other birds by looking for their chunky yellow beaks, yellow feet, white tail feathers and their wings staying flat while flying.

The species has Schedule 1 protection, which means it is illegal to disturb the bird.

Jordan posted elsewhere on Facebook: “It took me by surprise then it got chased off by a load of crows and ravens, only my second time seeing one and my god was it awesome.”

Unlike Golden Eagles, the white-tailed species do catch fish and can often be seen plummeting into the sea with their talons extended.

They also commonly eat hares, other birds and rabbits, as seen in Jordan's photos.

Their massive wings can almost look rectangular when flying and dwarfs the common bird's wingspan.

White-tailed eagles used to be widespread across the south of England, but in the 1900s, illegal hunting and other human activity caused the birds to be wiped out.

Almost 240 years later, the Roy Dennis Wildlife Foundation and Forestry England undertook a five year reintroduction project for the species on the Isle of Wight that started in 2019.

Two of the birds released by the project in 2020 reared a male chick, making that the first white-tailed eagle born in England since 1780.