Here are 37 interesting Eagle facts.
1-5 Eagle Facts
1. Despite having a wingspan of up to 7.5 feet and a height of up to 3.5 feet, a typical male bald eagle weighs only 9 pounds. – Source
2. It’s illegal to “pursue, shoot, shoot at, poison, wound, kill, capture, trap, collect, molest or disturb” a bald eagle in the US. – Source
3. The largest bald eagle nest on record was 9.5 feet wide and 20 feet high. It weighed more than two tons. – Source
4. Whenever you hear the sound of a bald eagle on TV, you’re actually hearing a red-tailed hawk. Bald eagles actually have more of a chirp. – Source
5. An Australian wedge-tailed eagle named Courage II was a corporal in the Australian army and was charged with being AWOL when he refused to cooperate. – Source
6-10 Eagle Facts
6. In the U.S., if you find a bald eagle feather on the ground, you need a permit to pick it up. – Source
7. Eagles can swim the breaststroke. – Source
8. Bald Eagles are so named because “balde” is an Old English word meaning “white.” – Source
9. When a bald eagle loses a feather on one wing, it will lose a feather on the other in order to keep its balance. – Source
10. The Martial Eagle has a diet that includes Black Mambas, Young Ostriches, Herons, Foxes, Baboons and Other Monkeys, and many more. – Source
11-15 Eagle Facts
11. Bald-Eagles mate while free-falling thousands of feet in the air. – Source
12. Eagles ride the air currents in front of thunderstorms, possibly contributing to the myth of the Native American ‘Thunderbird.’ – Source
13. Large, predatory eagles with possible wingspans up to 3 meters inhabited New Zealand until around 1400. – Source
14. Alaskan salmon fisherman feared Bald Eagles were a threat to the salmon population. As a result, more than 100,000 bald eagles were killed in Alaska from 1917 to 1953. – Source
15. A Dutch police force is training eagles to combat drones. – Source
16-20 Eagle Facts
16. White-tailed eagles often reuse their nests instead of recreating them year after year. One family of white-tailed eagles in Iceland has taken this to the extreme by reusing the same nest for 150 years. – Source
17. Bald eagles don’t become “bald” until they’re about 5 years old. – Source
18. The Desert Eagle is not used by any military or law enforcement agency. – Source
19. In 2008 a prosthetic beak was 3D printed and attached to a disfigured bald eagle. – Source
20. The Golden Eagle can kill and eat newborn Caribou. – Source
21-25 Eagle Facts
21. A 29-year-old non-releasable Bald Eagle named Challenger is the first Bald Eagle in history trained to free-fly into major league sports stadiums during the playing of the National Anthem. – Source
22. When eagles fight, they will lock talons in midair and freefall down towards the earth in an ”aerial game of chicken.” – Source
23. The bald eagle is no longer on the endangered list. – Source
24. There are Eagles in Scandinavia that create nests so massive; they have been known to cause trees to collapse under their weight. – Source
25. Eagles kill mountain goats by throwing them off cliffs. – Source
#28 is clearly incorrect. The linked citation appears to be a website written for or by elementary school students, and contains no mathematical justification for the statement. There are dozens, if not hundreds of rifle calibers, all with varying degrees of power. A 9 pound bald eagle, in freefall at 99 mph, will generate 3900 joules, or 2800 foot pounds of energy when it strikes .A standard 5.56 NATO rifle round will generate about 1,800 joules of energy, or 1325 foot pounds. A .338 Lapua magnum, however, will generate 6,600 joules, or about 4,900 foot pounds.