This bald eagle and blue heron facing off by the water was a true battle of the birds.
Orcas Island, Washington was the site of this wild face off between our nation’s bird and North America’s largest heron. A bald eagle had set up to do some fishing, but not if a great blue heron had anything to say about it. Though the blue heron may have had a slight size advantage, the bald eagle had the high ground.
Baldies also aren’t small birds by any means. They weigh anywhere between six and fifteen pounds (with females actually weighing more than males) and have a wingspan ranging from six to eight feet. And like vultures, bald eagles tend to be opportunistic hunters. Sure, they’ll hunt something down if they absolutely need to in order to survive, though they’ll just as likely take a couple of bites out of something that’s already been captured and killed.
All that to say… they aren’t really the confrontational type. It looks like this bald eagle in particular was just trying to set up on the dock and see if it could catch an easy fish dinner, but the blue heron had evidently already claimed the territory. So the long-beaked bird went over to the perched baldie and told it to skedaddle.
At first, the bald eagle held its ground. However, the loud noises and lunges by the blue heron quickly got under the skin of the American symbol, and eventually, it had enough. As birds do when they are distressed, the bald eagle turned the opposite direction and flew off into the sky.
Must be nice to be able to fly away from your problems all the time.
Someone at the Deer Harbor Marina was there to witness it all, and did us a favor by catching the confrontation on camera. It apparently all went down while Team U.S.A. was getting rolled over by Belgium in the World Cup. So America lost in many different ways on that night:
“Ironically, while the U.S. was taking on Belgium Monday night, another all-American showdown was happening right here at Deer Harbor Marina. Great Blue Heron: 1. Bald Eagle: 0. Even the local birds are competing for the best waterfront views in Deer Harbor!”
One of the coolest avian encounters you’ll ever see… and I’m sure the bald eagle just went off and found a less busy fishing spot.
I don’t know about you, but I always like to dip into the comment section and see what the internet had to say. I wasn’t disappointed with this one. There were plenty of jokes and comical takes about the bald eagle and blue heron sparring, and here’s some of the best ones I saw:
“They definitely have a history.”
“That heron is so not having it.”
“Now all we need is a peacock in the back.”
“The dinosaurs are dinosauring.”
“Wow that’s intense! And far more interesting than soccer.”
If that social media user is specifically talking about the Belgium-U.S. game, I’d have to agree with them.
