How do Bald Eagles catch fish?

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Friday, February 4. 2022

How do Bald Eagles catch fish?

Bald Eagles are a type of sea eagle - primarily fish-eaters - although they will catch ducks, sea gulls, house cats, muskrats, rabbits, etc when given an easy chance. Yes, they will also steal fish from Ospreys.

Unlike Ospreys, they do not dive into the water but just try to snatch fish on the surface:

Posted by Bird Dog in Natural History and Conservation at 13:03 | Comments (3) | Trackbacks (0)

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the bald eagle will also attack ospreys. last summer, after 30 plus years of osprey presence in the nest on the island behind our house, one of the numerous local eagles made another annual attempt to grab an osprey nestling. This time the adults were unable to drive the invader away. The eagle struck decisively. The result was a dead adult
osprey at the base of the nest tree. The other osprey abandoned the nest and hasn't' been seen since. Nature can be pretty cruel. Our fingers are crossed hoping a nesting pair comes to use the nest this spring.

#1 Joseph Hunt on 2022-02-04 19:21 (Reply)

I've watched bald eagles snatching fish out of the water at Reelfoot Lake in Tenn. I suppose the bird has a good view of the fish, but it's still always amazing to watch one of them swoop down and come up with a fish hooked on one of its claws.

#2 Frank on 2022-02-04 19:31 (Reply)

We love to watch them "fish" in the open water below the lock and dams on the Mississippi. It takes a few more tries to grab a fish than the video shows, but they never fly back empty. Eagles are a lot larger than they look on video. It used to be that eagles were only a winter phenomena, but now we have nesting pairs and see them are year round.

#3 old cyclone (Link) on 2022-02-05 19:55 (Reply)

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Friday, February 4. 2022

How do Bald Eagles catch fish?