A Sharpie, a Robber and a Louse
By
Bob Windish

Most folks know the Bald Eagle is our national symbol, but not everyone realizes the bird had a real scrap on its mitts before taking the title. Ben Franklin, acting as the Wild Turkey’s manager, stood in the gobbler’s corner and championed the big, bronze pheasant, before the raptor landed the knockout punch.

The Colonies, which had recently won their independence from boxing czar, George III, almost went along with Franklin, who in comparing the eagle with the British, said that the bird was, “like those among men, who live by sharping and robbing, is generally poor and often very lousy.” Franklin aimed his remark at the eagle’s habit of stealing the catch of ospreys and its eating of carrion.

The electorate shrugged off the Philadelphian’s pitch, however, and on June 20, 1782, awarded the heavyweight crown to the Bald Eagle in a close decision that amounted to a TKO.

What better reason then to declare the Bald Eagle as the PIAS Bird of the Month, with February celebrating the birthdays of two of the nation’s greatest leaders, George Washington and Abraham Lincoln, and President’s Day being one of the country’s holidays?

Strictly North American, the Bald Eagle inhabits 49 of the 50 U.S. states, plus Canada. They avoid the extreme north slope of Alaska, the western shore of Hudson Bay and the Dominion’s Baffin and Victoria Arctic islands where there are no tall trees or high cliffs on which to perch. Alaska claims the raptor’s largest population with Florida boasting a distant second.

Slightly smaller than the Golden Eagle, which is rarely seen east of the Mississippi, Haliaetus leucocephalus grows in length to 36 inches with a wing span of almost seven feet, the female being larger than the male.

Considered a sea eagle, the bird lives mostly near water, its source of food. Non-migratory, in the term’s strictest sense, the bird moves only from the coldest section of its range in winter. (Alaskan Bald Eagles might wing south a thousand miles from Nome or Fairbanks to Juneau or Sitka, but not to San Diego, the same with those from Wisconsin trekking only to Florida.)

Adults make a nest of long sticks, preferring tall pines or high cliffs to which they return yearly. Two white or pale blue eggs make up a clutch, however, one or three may also appear. The birds mate for life, both parents sharing the brooding and feeding of the chicks which hatch after 35 days. Usually only a single hatchling survives to fledge, the stronger bullying the other for food.

In bad weather, parents cover the young with outstretched wings while protecting them from the elements. The chicks are taught to tear apart their food and encouraged to exercise their wings. Flapping, they always rise higher each time while developing muscles and feathers. Eventually the parents entice the young into flight with rewards of food, but the chicks return to the nest until summer when they are driven out to live on their own.

The term “bald” is a misnomer, in the sense that the bird’s head is shorn of feathers. At birth, the raptor’s head and neck are completely covered with feathers but turn creamy-white beginning about age three and continuing until age seven. During that period, it also grows its white tail feathers. Before that, it is difficult to distinguish a Bald Eagle from a Golden.

Bald Eagles have few enemies, crows being their biggest nemesis. The black birds seem to delight in pecking at the eagle’s head in flight. Ospreys will also strike back when the bigger bird-of-prey attacks it while attempting to steal its catch.

While Bald Eagles eat mostly dead fish washed up on shore, they also hunt by skimming along the surface of a waterway and sinking their talons into any prey swimming on the surface of a lake or river. In addition, they have been observed by none other than famed naturalist, James Audubon, wading in shallows where they stab at live prey coming close to shore. At times, too, they will plunge from great heights into water like a pelican, and grasp a fish.

Unlike ospreys, which have much stronger wings, they are not able to lift large fish heavier than themselves from under the water. One unique hunting feature the Bald Eagle possesses, however, is its ability to fly upside-down for a short spell. Sometimes they use this technique while hunting ducks and geese, swooping under their prey and plunging their sharp talons into the victim’s breast and then righting themselves before flying off with dinner.

Eagles are strictly diurnal, meaning they are active only during daylight. They belong to the order Falconiformes and family Accipitridae, which includes hawks, kites, kestrels, falcons, Old World vultures, and the European hawk-like bird, the buzzard. (A buzzard, despite popular opinion, is not synonymous with a vulture. Buzzards do not inhabit the Americas.) All these birds are characterized by hooked beaks, long, sharp talons, well developed legs and feet, excellent eyesight and strength in flight.

Regardless of tales about them carrying off lambs, young calves, colts, and fawns, for which they have been poisoned by farmers and shot by hunters, evidence points out that the victims had met their demise at the hands (or fangs) of other critters such as wolves, pumas, badgers, etc., and that the eagles were simply feasting on the carrion left by the original predator.

There is a single authenticated incident, however, for which Bald Eagles have been wrongly accused of committing frequently, and that is of carrying off babies. As the bird attempted to lift the child from its cradle, where it had been left to sun by its mother, the infant’s blanket unraveled, the baby falling back into its bedding after only a few inches in flight, slightly shaken but otherwise unharmed.

Material source: Funk & Wagnalls Wildlife Encyclopedia
Funk & Wagnalls New Encyclopedia
The American Collegiate Dictionary