Give a Bald eagle a fish, and feed it for a day. You don’t really need to teach an eagle how to fish, because they’ve likely already got that under control.
This is why the Bald eagle is the perfect choice for our national bird. It’s equipped with the abilities to get food on its own, but it won’t ever pass up an opportunity to eat “fast food.” If that doesn’t scream America, I truly don’t know what does.
It’s obviously not advised to feed wildlife (doing so can lead to issues), but its a pretty common practice for birds to hang around places where fish scraps are plentiful. Hawks do it, pelicans do it, even majestic Bald eagles do it (yes, that’s an obscure reference to a Cole Porter song from 1928).
In the footage below, it appears that this Bald eagle had been keeping a close eye on this fishing boat and made sure to stay within the vicinity in case they had anything “extra” that they were just going to dispose of. Judging by how in sync the fisherman and this eagle were, there’s a good chance this wasn’t the first time the crew on this boat threw the large bird some scraps.
The man waves around the fish parts in the area, seemingly signaling or communicating for the eagle to fly in closer to the boat. Somehow, our national bird knows exactly what to do, and gets into position to catch the fish parts when they are thrown into the air.
And when the scraps did go airborne, the Bald eagle was as cool as a cucumber. There was no panic, or second guesses from the massive bird. It just effortlessly dipped down and bit and grabbed onto the fish remains with one quick snap of its sharp talons.
Once it had the fresh fish in tow, the Bald eagle veered right and flew off and away from the fishing boat. It was as “business transactional” as an interaction could be with a wild animal, though again, by no means are we encouraging the feeding of wildlife (though this example of what NOT to do was picturesque).
Check it out:
There was never a doubt that the eagle was going to catch those fish scraps.
Social media users were impressed by the Bald eagle’s confident catch, and sent out replies below the post saying:
Top tier catch
— Azure Nelly (@Azure_Nelly) January 26, 2024
Bald Eagle has skills!
— Paul Powell (@PaulHPowell13) January 25, 2024
‘Merica
— Del Crxpto (@DelCrxpto) January 26, 2024
Too smooth
— Uzoma (@henrie089) January 26, 2024
— Cub (@cub527) January 26, 2024
Implying that this fish catch was an iconic as the Odell Beckham Jr. fingertip catch? That’s a rather strong comparison, and I don’t know how to feel about it…
