Bald eagles are one of those birds that I have always greatly admired. In my humble opinion, they’re like royalty among birds, the true nobles of the skies.
Recently, I stumbled upon a video online that made me realize bald eagles aren’t always as dignified and poised as I previously thought.
Don’t get me wrong, I still hold these birds in high regard, but now I know they can sometimes be just as silly as any other animal.
The video I saw was published on Instagram by OWL Wildlife Rehabilitation, a nonprofit organization dedicated to rescuing, rehabilitating, and releasing birds of prey.
In the video, a rescuer attempts to separate two male bald eagles that had become entangled.
Apparently, the birds had engaged in an epic mid-air fight, resulting in their talons locking together, leaving them unable to separate on their own.
Describing the whole detangling process in the description of the video, OWL wrote:
“Upon arrival, we attempted to scare them apart, which usually does work, but not in this case. Neither would let go and continued to argue, so we had to pry apart each talon.”
According to the video’s description, bald eagles typically fight over territory or to protect their nests.
The specific cause of this fight remains unclear, but it was reported that the eagles had been locked in battle for over an hour.
When the fight was reported, the OWL center was not yet open, but fortunately, a rescuer who lived nearby was able to quickly come to the scene and help.
The rescuer did her best to separate the two birds quickly, but their wings continually got in the way.
One of the eagles even slapped her a few times with his wing, which might have looked funny, but was likely less amusing to endure.
At one point, she tried to calm one eagle by covering him with a blanket, but he refused to be quieted so easily, haha.
During the separation process, the rescuer discovered that one of the eagles had a severe eye injury.
She decided to release the less injured eagle in case he needed to return to a nearby nest and planned to take the injured one to the OWL center for eye treatment.
The entire rescue mission took less than four minutes, although it probably felt much longer to the brave rescuer handling the situation.
Here’s the video if you want to see how the separation process unfolded:
The part I loved most about this video was the last scene when the released bald eagle accidentally collided with a young lady on an electric scooter. I literally laughed out loud when I saw it!
Thankfully, neither the bird nor the lady was hurt. Both were just as confused and surprised by their unusual encounter but continued on their respective paths.
The bald eagle with the eye injury was, as mentioned earlier, taken to the OWL center where he received excellent care. He was released back into the wild a week later.
I hope both eagles avoid further scuffles and stay out of trouble – at least for a while.