Two territorial bald eagles brawl for nearly 5 hours in Washington yard, video shows
Two territorial bald eagles brawled in a Washington yard for nearly five hours.
Neighbor Kim McCormick caught the May 1 encounter on camera and posted a video on Facebook.
The bald eagles locked talons and smacked each other with their wings as they wrestled below a tree, the video shows. Shrieking crows are heard in the background in the northeast Seattle neighborhood.
McCormick is the co-founder of the Seattle Merlin Project, an independent raptor study. Neighbors and friends often contact her if they have bird-related questions.
So when she got a call about the two eagles around 6 p.m. near the Meadowbrook neighborhood, she showed up — and called for backup.
Avoid intervening with fighting bald eagles
Progressive Animal Welfare Society naturalist Jeff Brown came to check on the birds. He and McCormick soon decided to not intervene with the eagles, she said.
“We decided it would be best to let the eagles work out their dominance issues by themselves and that human intervention might mess up their hierarchy,” McCormick told McClatchy News.
Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife eagle expert Jim Watson agreed.
If someone witnesses an eagle fight, Watson said to keep pets away and “let nature take its course.”
Intervention could cause the eagle’s nest to fail if the male eagle is no longer able to defend it or hunt, McCormick said.
After a while, the birds will release from each other and separate eventually, Watson said.
McCormick said she continued to check in on the fighting birds until nightfall, and her neighbor told her they had moved on some time before he looked outside again at 11 p.m. All in all, the eagles fought for about three to five hours.
“While it can be hard to watch, it’s part of their biology and your ‘wild backyard!’” Seattle-area district biologist Chris Anderson told McClatchy News.
But if one bird looks injured, Watson said you can call a wildlife rehabilitator. Trying to treat an animal yourself without a permit is illegal, according to the state agency.
Why do bald eagles fight?
Territorial encounters between bald eagles aren’t uncommon during nesting season, Watson said.
Though it is rare for bald eagles to make physical contact, PAWS wildlife rehabilitation manager Emily Meredith told McClatchy News.
The eagles will typically have other signals including calling and posturing to get another bird to leave their territory, Meredith said.
When a bald eagle gets into a physical encounter, the fight can last several hours if they lock talons and crash to the ground where they can become stunned, Watson said.
The fight caught on camera was likely between two males given the time of year and nesting behavior. Nesting season is also a time when hormones are high, he said.
The encounter was likely between a nesting eagle on their territory and a potentially a younger male eagle trying to take over their area, Watson said.
At this time in the season, bald eagles in Seattle typically have young chicks or eggs that are further along, Anderson said. So bald eagles that are non-breeders are looking to take territory and a mate.
If a bald eagle tries to “usurp territory,” the benefits could be worth a brawl with another eagle to get “good foraging areas” and a successful nest, Anderson said.
Once considered endangered, bald eagles were removed from the federal list in 2007. And the bird is now deemed “general protected wildlife” in Washington after being removed from the sensitive listing status.
This story was originally published May 6, 2022 at 11:32 AM with the headline "Two territorial bald eagles brawl for nearly 5 hours in Washington yard, video shows."
