Did y'all know eagles could swim?

[Alpo]

Bald eagle out fishing. Got one too big to pick up and fly off with, so he swam it in to shore.

Muskie Maniac Joe Hamby - The Eagle - YouTube

 

[jkc]

A friend described a similar incident observed in Alaska, with an eagle swimming a fish too large to lift to shore...

Just yesterday afternoon, I spied a bald eagle soaring above the local range, Rio Salado Sportsman's Club, in the parched Arizona desert. No telling what they may do...

 

[rilkil23]

That is amazing. He moved like he had done it many times before this video. I would have never guessed a eagle could navigate the water. Thanks for sharing.

 

[mountaingun629]

Kind of strange that they could do that, since they don't have webbed feet like ducks or geese.

Myron

 

[Kavinsky]

hey you do what you gotta do to get the food and I guess that applies to mother nature as well.

 

[LouisianaJoe]

Here is one in my back yard flying off with a baby Nutria. Notice the adult Nutria below looking up.

 

[gjamison]

that's how most eagle's die. they get a hold of there prey and won't
let. largest cause of eagle deaths are from drowning.

 

[CajunBass]

I was on my way to work one evening, not too long ago, when an eagle swooped down in front of my car, and grabbed up a piece of road kill (probably a possum), and tried to carry it off. Struggling to gain airspeed and altitude, it flapped along in front of me, as I slowed down and tried to get my camera phone out. Finally it cleared the guard-rail on the causeway, and, dove, using that little altitude to gain airspeed, it leveled out over the water, and gradually gained speed and altitude as it went off across the lake.

 

[Maximumbob54]

From an uncle who lived in Alaska for a few years, he described them lig the dogs of the skies. He used to tell us how you had to do your best to shoe them away when you were fishing because they would steal your catch and if you didn't hold on or cut your line then your pole would go as well. He also used to say they would fight in the air and come crashing down in the water. They would surface with this angry look and fluff up their feathers to dry and then go right back at it. They may look good for our National bird, but they aren't so full of grace as we may like to think.

 

[5-Shot]

Years ago I read about fishermen in the PNW catching a big fish with the skeleton of an eagle attached to its back. Apparently eagle talons "lock" into place and eagles are rotten judges of fish size. That bird may have been swimming for his life.

Ed

 

[tork'd]

living very close to the Mississippi river as well as the Rock River, we have a very large eagle population that winters here(when the river is frozen). am a big fan of the eagles and like to watch them as they fish by the rollers and steal the fish from the walleye fishermen.
have seen many fly just above the water, grab something in the water and end up in it.
have never seen one swim back to shore with a catch until that video.
have seen them about 200 yards from our back door finishing off a small deer taken down by coyotes. the coyotes just stood in the distance and watched.

 

[bobf]

Not good pictures quick handheld shots from 150+ yds but this one hunts in my back yard sometimes. It's carrying a cowbird (cattle egret), it took it down into the water and got airborne from the water.

Another day I may have disturbed it eating, it flew away with lunch in its beak.

 

[DeadAye]

I did a few jobs at the Anchorage airport. We would go to the end of the runway to eat lunch and watch the eagles fish the current break - Best lunch and a show that I can remember
One day my working partner and I were coming back from Talkeetna when we saw an eagle swoop down into someone's back yard and come up with Fluffy!

 

[sophie]

Good information, I didn't know eagles could swim.

_________
James

 

[rburg]

Not swimming but in the spring of 1989 I was heading to Utah. The guy with me had never been west of Indy, and had never seen a bird bigger than a crow. So as we rounded a turn out in the Cisco desert, there along side the road was a 747, having pounced on some hapless critter. He saw and heard my jeep approaching and launched upward. No altitude, no airspeed, but he did have those monstrous wings and they were working in warp drive to get things moving. I was all over the brakes to keep from hitting him. He got up just above the windshield as we went under. Yes, he was wider than the jeep.

All my buddy could say is "wow". Then when he got some of his composure back he started swearing a bit. I eased the pain for him just a bit by telling him "it was a little one."