Somebody get this bald eagle a hair dryer.
Or maybe it would be called a feather-dryer if you were using it on a bird? Regardless, I can virtually guarantee you that you’ve never seen a bald eagle as sopping wet as the one in this video. This viral video shows the bald eagle treading water near a dock in Canada – and not looking very comfortable doing it. Thankfully, a person that was nearby was able to encourage the bird and help it to safety.
Now I’ve seen my fair share of “large bird picks something up” videos, and a lot of those have bald eagles as their star. Nothing is as patriotic as a bald eagle swooping down through the air and soaring back up into the sky with something in tow. You just can help but mutter “America” and salute. But I don’t think I’ve ever seen a clip showing what happens if a bald eagle is unsuccessful in its hunt, and then struggles even more to get itself out of the water.
Bald eagles have some of the sharpest talons of all predatory birds, and their exceptional eyesight (which allows them to spot prey up to 2 miles away) really supports the phrase “eagled eyed.” That saying had to come from somewhere. However, just like all of us, the bald eagle isn’t always perfect. Sometimes it can dive down into the water trying to catch a fish and end up with nothing to show for it.
The poor bird in this video likely dove down into the water after a fish or a smaller bird. There’s even a chance that it caught a fish, but their prey ended up being too heavy to pull out of the water. One way or another, the bald eagle stayed in the water for too long and its feathers became waterlogged. So it went from trying to catch a meal to just trying to keep its head above water.
Someone on the dock saw that this was happening and decided to get their camera out to capture it all on video. The man coaxes the bald eagle towards the dock, all while speaking to it like it can understand the English language:
“Give me your hand. Come on, let me pick you up.”
First off, I’m rather positive that the proper way to say that would have been to ask the bald eagle to “give its wing.” Second, America’s national bird was eventually able to work its way up onto the dock pretty much on its own. No help from the man talking to the bird was necessary, and that was probably for the best.
But the guy stuck around to capture some hilarious facial expressions from the bald eagle:
https://www.instagram.com/reel/DE7jlpcOLlo/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link
Have you ever seen a bald eagle look so humiliated?
Most of the time, they’re too busy looking badass as they swoop down and grab stuff with their talons. At the very least, they look patriotic just flying around and screeching. This one though? It was soaked, and not happy about it. And those on social media thought it was hilarious:
“Bro looking at him like ‘you got a towel?'”
“Got out that water looking stressed.”
“Why the eagle looking at the camera man like it’s his fault?”
“That big ol’ bird looked pissed.”
“Eagle was confused like, ‘I don’t have a hand.'”
