The Eagle has landed - birds getting their prey

Splash and dash

Pictures of Eagles capturing their prey

Eagles are large birds of prey which are members of the bird family Accipitridae, and belong to several genera which are not necessarily closely related to each other. Most of the more than 60 species occur in Eurasia and Africa.

Outside this area, just two species (the Bald and Golden Eagles) can be found in the USA and Canada, nine more in Central and South America, and three in Australia.

Eagles are differentiated from many other birds of prey mainly by their larger size, more powerful build, and heavier head and beak. Even the smallest eagles, like the Booted Eagle (which is comparable in size to a Common Buzzard or Red-tailed Hawk), have relatively longer and more evenly broad wings, and more direct, faster flight. Most eagles are larger than any other raptors apart from the vultures.

Species named as eagles can range in size from the South Nicobar Serpent-eagle, at 500 grams (1.1 pounds) and 40 cm (16 in), to the 6.7-kg Steller's Sea Eagle and the 100 cm (39 in) Philippine Eagle.

Like all strong birds of prey, eagles have very large powerful hooked beaks for tearing the flesh from their prey, strong muscular legs, and powerful talons.

They also have extremely keen eyesight which enables them to spot potential prey from a very long distance above.

This keen eyesight is primarily contributed by their extremely large pupils which ensure minimal diffraction (scattering) of the incoming light.

Hence the expression, "eagle eyed".

Is this prey a rabbit?

Either way it shows you how fast an Eagle can swoop down and catch a prey that is bigger in mass with four legs! Run Rabbit Run!

Run rabbit run!

A rabbit you say?

Heck, my blind grandmother could catch one of those. Ok then, jackass, how about a fox?

You ever seen an eagle catch a cunning fox? You have now:

What did the fox say?

Want more? Check out these hungry tigers or this killer whale breaking pseudo orca's back... I doubt eagles use pH meters, bit if they did, I'd recommend they check out the Milwaukee ph tester. It's good for all kinds of applications such as testing water & wort. Eagles probably don't use campden tablets for making cider out of apples either! 

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Golden eagle catching a red fox

Classic move by the Eagle. 

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Crested Serpent Eagle attacks a python snake

Eagles must have the biggest balls of them all, especially this Crested Serpent eagle who has attacked this python because to him, the snake is simply lunch.

I've heard that an Eagle's talon grip has been measured at 400 PSI, given your hand can do around 20, that eagle has some serious grip on the python. The pain and crushing blow of that landing, coupled with the powerful grip means that snake probably doesn't have much of a chance of making it to his next meal.

I guess it an eagle has earned the title of Crested 'Serpent' Eagle, it knows what it's doing.

This photo does the pounds on Reddit every so often - so much so this photo is attributed to photographer Antonius Andre Tjiu somewhere in Southern Borneo in Indonesia.

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Here's an eagle eating a dead deer it found.

This redditor reports "My uncle set up a trail camera near a dead deer and caught this, I thought it was awesome!" If you mean eagle eating a deer is awesome, well son, you're correct! 

I'm not sure I've ever seen an eagle this happy but given how tasty those ribs look, who can blame the bald fella?

Carrion my wayward son, indeed. 

Here's a very surprised fox after a eagle attack.

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Eagle flying with a knife. Yes, you read that correctly

Things must be getting tough with the recession. Despite having sharp beaks and incredibly strong talons, some eages have felt the need to arm themselves with knives to help them take down their prey. I'm sure there's a Crocodile Dundee joke in there somewhere....

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An Eagle and his pollock

The Telegraph featured this photo of a white-tailed eagle grabbing a pollock fish from a lake in Lauvsnes in Norway. The photo was snapped by Harry Eggens from Groningen, in the Netherlands.

Eggens was quoted as saying "It is a great sight to see when these majestic birds grab the fish right out of the water. Most of the time they catch them on their first attempt. This eagle flew straight back to the nest when he'd caught the pollock and he probably had to give the lot of it to the wife and kids."

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What did the Chameleon say to the cricket?

The Telegraph newspaper has highlighted how photographer Scott Linstead goes to extraordinary lengths to capture these pictures in which creatures appear frozen in time. Check out this chameleon catching a cricket with its long sticky tongue as an example:

Stay for lunch?

Scott spends up to a week arranging the lighting and phototraps which trigger the camera and flash. The human eye and reaction speed on the shutter release button are rarely quick enough to take the photos manually. Case in point, this set up of an archer fish spitting water at a cricket to make it fall into the water so the fish can prey on it:

Interestingly, when the photographer lowered the cricket's position lower to the water, the archer fish jumped at its prey instead!

Fish out of water....

One photo that was not done as a set up was this one: Scott spent four days in a hide at the edge of a pond in Kangasala, Finland, to get this photo of an osprey eagle diving for a salmon fish:

Going my way?

Check out more of  Scott's great camera work at www.scottyphotography.com

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Bald Eagles fish for their lunch

A group of bald and golden eagles feed on a fish on the frozen surface of the Mississippi River, Minessota.

Check out these seagulls eating some baby ducks.

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