Fish like an eagle

Earlier this week, one of our visitors sent us a video taken from a Barker-Ewing raft of a bald eagle fishing for trout. The video shows a bald eagle circling above the river. The eagle quickly identifies its prey and then swoops down and drops into the river, grabs the fish with its talons, and proceeds to swim to a cobblestone island with its catch.

Watching the video reminded me of the many times I’ve seen bald eagles hunting and fishing from my own raft. Bald eagles, like other predators, are masters of finding and catching prey. They are opportunistic feeders, which means they have many strategies for finding food: fishing, hunting, stealing food from other birds, and scavenging.

In my many years as a river guide in Grand Teton National Park, I have seen eagles dive completely into the water to catch fish. I’ve watched them skim over the surface, dragging their talons into the water and grabbing their unsuspecting prey. And I’ve seen eagles scavenging carcasses left on the riverbank by other predators.

The most common means of finding fish is to simply sit in a high tree perch and look for them. The eagles are aided in this by their acute eyesight, which is about five times better than humans. Once the fish is spotted, the eagle leaves the perch and snatches the fish from the river with its talons. Have you ever tried to snatch a fish from the water? They’re awfully slippery, but good thing the eagle grip strength is around 400psi, in contrast to a human with around 70psi.

The most exciting fishing technique — at least from my perspective — is what is known as kleptoparasitism. (File that under: word of the day!) This means stealing fish from other fishing birds. It often plays out like this: an osprey catches a fish, and then while flying back to its nest with the fish, the eagle will seize the moment and harass the osprey, which has to drop the fish to avoid the larger eagle. The falling fish is snatched out of the air by the eagle, which finds a perch or returns to its nest to devour its ill–gotten meal. Thrilling!

Eagles often fish in the early or late parts of the day when it is cooler. If you are lucky to live in an area where you can spend some time watching eagles, don’t miss your chance to see these wonderful anglers in action!