Dodge, duck, dip, dive and dodge… the “Five D’s of Duck Survival.”
Obviously that’s actually the “Five D’s of Dodgeball,” from everyone’s favorite 2004 film Dodgeball: A True Underdog Story. But it does apply here as well, especially because the small fish-eating duck known as the hooded merganser was 100% an underdog as it faced off against two much large bald eagles.
There’s just something about watching a pair of the United States’ national bird doing their thing that screams patriotism to me. The fact that this footage comes out of Canada makes it that much better… almost makes you want to stand up and salute these two bald eagles. I don’t think that’s a stretch, and I can’t be the only one that feels the same way. Hopefully one of you readers out there will feel the need to salute this clip too, at the very least out of solidarity for my patriotic appreciation.
The bald eagle is one of the more ferocious birds of prey in the animal kingdom. Sometimes they do their own hunting, while other times they just wait for other animals to do it for them and steal it away. I once heard the bald eagle described as a “vulture with a good PR agent,” and though it’s not all that complimentary… it’s actually spot on.
Though bald eagles will track down their own food, like rabbits, muskrats and surprisingly water fowl (like in this video below), they’ll just as quickly use their incomparable vision to track down a carcass and swoop down to claim it as their own. Resourceful and opportunistic, just like the American people. Maybe that’s why it got the title of national bird?
In this clip though, two bald eagles are in full-on hunt mode. You’d think with their sharp talons and size, they’d made short work out of a small little duck in the water. However, you’ve got to hand it to this hooded merganser… it was putting together a masterclass on elusiveness. The bald eagles had tracked the smaller bird down to one portion of the frozen body of water that was still thawed out, and though it didn’t have a lot of square footage to play with, the duck was successfully staying alive (dodging, dipping, diving, ducking and dodging).
It was only when the smaller bird took off out of the water that the bald eagles got the upper hand (or upper talon?). The hooded merganser is fast, but not as fast as a bald eagle, which can fly as fast as 30 miles per hour. Though our nation’s bird can actually hit speeds that push 100 miles per hour if they are diving (falling with style?), this chase down didn’t require that kind of high velocity aerial assault. One of the bald eagles simply kicked it into the gear, and then dinner was served.
The person who took the video was astounded by the natural beauty of food chain playing out right in front of their eyes:
“Winters are harsh here, particularly so at the end of the season. As I was driving home last week I saw an amazing sight of survival. Two bald eagles and a hooded merganser, all fighting for their lives. In the end, the eagles prevailed but not before an exhausting fight. I feel deeply privileged to have seen this, and touched by how difficult survival is in the animal kingdom.”
Check it out:
