Bald Eagle fishing for King Salmon

Bald Eagle fishing for King Salmon

Ok, this bald eagle might just be biting off more than she can chew.  However, even though the pictured King Salmon might be a monster weighing over 100 lbs, sometimes a bald eagle CAN lift very large loads if they are flying fast.  So if a bald eagle was picking up a dead fish from the beach she could lift probably only about 5 or so lbs.  If she was picking up a fish she dive bombed at 40 miles per hour she could probably carry much more weight. . . at least for a short distance.  Whether she could carry a 100 lb salmon to the shore is doubtful.  

The laws of physics say that more speed equals more lift so that is why a Bald Eagle can carry heavier loads when they take the prey at high speed.  Of course maybe this was happening close to shore.... so the eagle could get that huge King Salmon to shore.    The bald eagle certainly could have a much easier time fishing for the smelt or Eulacon.  Eulacon only reach sizes of .98 feet or 30 cm.  The smelt are hiding in or heading for the kelp.  

You might have noticed that I referred to the above bald eagle as a she.   That is because a female raptor is larger than the male.  So a female would have a better chance of landing a large salmon. 

Bald eagles are fish raptors.  They are large predatory birds that feed mostly on fish.  Bald Eagles in the Aluetian Islands tend to prey on baby sea otters.  The Bald Eagles that live inland prey more on freshwater fish and they also prey on rabbits and small mammals.  One fish and game officer in Alaska found a cat collar in an eagle's nest...  (poor kitty).

As far as we know, a bald eagle has never carried away a small child, although when I taught preschool and kindergarten in Juneau,  Alaska we had a bald eagle that would perch in a tree above our small playground and eye the children with what really looked like hunger...like he or she was trying to figure out if the children were too big to carry. 

The source for much of this post was read on the Alaska Fish And Game web site. 

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