Everything You Didn’t Know About Eagles

We’re soaring with the eagles—as in the birds of prey, not the band or the football team—in this reel. There are 60 species of eagle roaming the skies from North America to Africa.

Video Script:: 

[Music] this is ver money a martial Eagle the largest African Eagle they have enough power in one foot to break a human arm as powerful as they are their strength in numbers continues to decrease in the wild martial eagles weigh in at around 14 pounds with a wingspan up to eight and a half feet bomani is native to sub-saharan Africa preferring open woods wooded savanna and thorn bush habitats he is an apex predator sitting at the top of the avian food chain unfortunately they are being persecuted by humans mistakenly believed to be a predatory threat to livestock in reality domestic animals make up a very small percentage of their diet add to that a shrinking habitat which reduces prey the martial eagle population is dwindling fast this is the martial eagle [Music] there are so many Eagles here bald eagles are our national burden for most people in the US there are rare and magnificent sighting but for us it's just part of our daily lives everybody in town has an eagle Suri [Music] I'm Carlin and Lowe born and raised in Alaska and I am the Unalaska Visitors Bureau executive director even though our island is almost 80 miles long there are nearly 600 birds in just a few square miles which is crazy there's an unnatural amount of birds here because we contribute to their food source these bald eagles are so amazing and we love seeing them but when they're involved in your daily life they can make running errands or your work really difficult you read something as simple as mailing a letter can be dangerous I'm officer would with the an Alaska Department of Public Safety our department put up these signs to warn the community about the dangers of the nesting Eagles which are right next to the post office Eagles have been known to swoop down and attack people they're very territorial and they're just trying to protect their nests the eagle's nest is right there and here is the post office some people have been hurt during these incidents but I've also heard some funny stories I'm Pam Oz and I run bingo here at the Senior Center every other Sunday I was carrying this box it had something like bingo stuff in it all of a sudden a wing hit my head the talons came down grabbed the box and flew down the street and I never saw my bingo box again but if you want to see a whole lot of eagles you go to the landfill I'm Steve bastok I work at the city of Onalaska the landfill one of my favorite places to be also one of the Eagles favorite places to be I know that Eagles are scavengers and predators so they like trash to they'll pick up whatever they think might be food my name is Bob Wilson I've been fishing out of the Bering Sea and Dutch Harbor for 40 years Dutch Harbor is one of the largest fishing ports in the world every time we pull in we know the Eagles are waiting for us so they can steal our fish as we offload it do I think they're pests oh absolutely but they're cool pests so that's okay they make a mess of my boat which is kind of the bad part but they are national bird and we love them anyway how's that [Music] [Music] don't go anywhere being in a bald eagle nest is surreal this is a wild animal she's being rowdy it's very capable of hurting you if you're not careful so you have to take your time a little rough huh sorry about that it's an experience that's hard to describe my name is Jim Campbell Spitler I'm a forest canopy ecologist and a wildlife biologist and I'm pretty sure I have the best job in the world my job is to climb into the eagle's nest and capture and work with chicks monster and the reason why we're doing this is we're trying to get blood samples and we can use those blood samples to look at environmental contaminants and how they get into the bald eagles food source and make me chase you huh don't you come off there come down it's a challenging species to work with it's got a really sharp hooked beak and its talons are big and powerful and you don't want to let them grab ahold of you because they can really do some damage all right let's go down this is a wild animal so you never know what can happen the Channel Islands are an island chain off the coast of Southern California these guys know lucky ball they're a desert island system you get out there and you can stand on top of these Bluffs and you can see the Pacific a whole 360-degree view of just the most beautiful ocean you can ever imagine you've got not only bald eagles you have peregrine falcons that are nesting on the sea cliffs just tell me if she's coming in you've got a host of different seabirds and it's just a magical place a research it may look invasive but really one of our primary concerns is the safety of these young birds that were handling so we go to great lengths to ensure that we don't injure them and that when we put them back in the nest they're just as well off as when we first encountered them like you the bald eagles are national birds so it's quite an honor for me to get to work with this species quite often I'll just sit in that nest for a moment and just take in the view and just think wow you know it's just an honor to get up there be able to share that view and that experience with them just for that moment in time [Music] this is Jackson a 16 year old golden eagle we almost lost these beautiful birds but now they're bouncing back Golden Eagles are excellent hunters and extremely fast diving at speeds greater than a hundred and fifty miles per hour this makes the Golden Eagle one of the fastest animals on earth when hunting they use their sharp talons to grab their prey Golden Eagles have been known to hunt animals as large as deer and gray wolves their feathers are dark brown with lighter gold around their head and neck in the 1960s branches feared that they were eating their livestock and over 20,000 was shot since then through education then numbers have restabilized and their biggest threat now is habitat loss this is the golden eagle [Music] [Music] this is the northern bald eagle an iconic bird that we almost lost for good only a few decades ago northern Bald Eagles are the larger of the two subspecies of the bald eagle their wingspan can reach over seven feet they are powerful fliers that soar through the air reaching over 40 miles per hour when gliding they're excellent predators attacking from above with their long and sharp talons by the 1960s their population was decimated with less than 1000 left in the wild chemicals from pesticides traveled up the food chain rendering these top predators sterile or unable to lay healthy eggs thankfully after massive regulations were put in place they have made a near full recovery today loss of suitable habitat is still a threat as they are very sensitive to human activity this is the northern bald eagle [Music] this is the battle or eagle shrinking habitats and inadvertent poisoning has caused a major drop in this majestic birds population battlers and medium-sized birds but they have a wingspan of over 6 feet they have dark black feathers under their white wings with a red face and legs while endemic to most parts of Africa they prefer the urban woodland savannas or the grasslands the name battle-ax is French for tightrope walker and references their distinctive flight pattern unlike most birds they fly low to the ground when hunting for prey they feed on small birds and mammals but are also carrion eaters unfortunately farmers will poison dead carcasses to kill off predators and batter loose end up ingesting the highly toxic poisons this is the battle Louisville [Music] you