There’s a lot to unpack here, so bear with me.
First off, in case you didn’t know, a group of bald eagles can be called a convocation, congress, aerie, and/or army, and any of those have to be the coolest name for a grouping of birds that exists (a murder of crows is a close second). My favorite option of all of those would calling them a “congress,” though there’s really not a bad option out of that list.
By dump site, I mean that the bald eagles in this video are shown basically taking over a waste disposal facility. People in more rural areas probably know all about them (and most likely frequent them with their trash), though I’d guess that some “city folk” might be surprised to know that all of our trash actually ends up somewhere.
And trash heaps might seem like a bad place to hang out, but for scavengers, it’s like Disney World. Our national bird (which was only made official recently, interestingly enough) obviously brings about a sense of patriotism, right? Bald eagles are some of the most beautiful and majestic birds on the entire planet… but have you ever heard them described as a “vulture with a good PR agent?”
Like vultures, bald eagles tend to be opportunistic hunters. Sure, they’ll hunt something down if they absolutely need to in order to survive, they frequently dive for fish over bodies of water. However, they’ll just as likely take a couple of bites out of something that’s already been killed… called “carrion.” They’ve also been known to steal captured fish and other small prey right out of the hands/claws/talons of other creatures. And they’ll also pick through garbage if the opportunity presents itself.
Funny enough, they prefer to not work very hard for their own food.
By no means am I trying to take away the luster from the bald eagle. I’ve had a tear come to my eye seeing one fly through the sky in person just like the rest of you. I’m just doing my best to inform you on what a bald eagle really is, and I’ll be the first to admit that even though they typically go for easy meals, they’ve got the power and ability to go get their own dinner whenever they want. That being said, the bald eagles in this clip out of Unalaska, Alaska are certainly going for an easy meal.
Oh! That’s the last thing in the headline that I need to cover. Yes, Unalaska, Alaska is a real place. It’s a city that’s located off mainland Alaska on an island named… you guessed it: Unalaska Island. There’s only about 4,000 to 5,000 people that call the hilariously named area home, which makes me think that they could potentially be outnumbered by bald eagles. The state of Alaska holds the record for largest bald eagle population in all of America, with a total number estimated to be around 30,000.
And many of those bald eagles can be seen in this video below:
Just another day in Unalaska, Alaska I suppose.
Social media users that stumbled across the video were mesmerized by the amount of bald eagles gathered in one place (especially those that were lined up on the building’s railing). They were also a bit confused that our nation’s bird was choosing to just pick through trash for its food, and people were just as shocked as I was to find out that Unalaska, Alaska is an actual city:
“All you can eat bald eagle buffet.”
“Thats a lot of freedom in one place.”
“The squad dropped in.”
“I’m sorry… are we just ignoring the Unalaska part?”
“Freedom Pigeons.”
“The bald eagle division of DOGE was there for inspection.”
“That’s so un-Alaska of them.”
