![\"\"](\"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/12\/bald-eagle-4529b-ron-dudley.jpg\" "\\"bald-eagle-4529b-ron-dudley\\"")
<\/p>\nThe bullies of the refuge square off against each other.<\/p>\n
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1\/800, f\/5.6, ISO 800, Canon 7D, Canon EF 500mm f\/4L IS USM, not baited, set up or called in<\/em><\/p>\n For better or for worse Bald Eagles simply don’t recognize legitimate “ownership” when it comes to food. If it appeals to them anybody’s food is fair game whether it rightfully belongs to an Osprey, harrier, hawk, owl, magpies, ravens, crows or another Bald Eagle. They even steal food from predatory or scavenging mammals. Fairly or not Ben Franklin referred to the Bald Eagle as a “bird of bad moral character” and a “coward.” In truth kleptoparasitism is a legitimate ecological role shared by a variety of birds but Bald Eagles seem to be the poster child for a behavior thought to be less than honorable by many.<\/p>\n Some years ago at Farmington Bay WMA the adult eagle on the right had been contentedly feeding on the carp behind its tail (as evidenced by the blood on its bill) when another adult swooped down onto the ice and challenged the legitimate owner for the fish. They squared off in threatening postures before the potential thief apparently decided that the aggressiveness of the other eagle’s response was more than he wanted to deal with so that bird eventually abandoned its attempt at thievery.<\/p>\n More often than not such aggressive interactions between Bald Eagles over food don’t even result in physical contact but on rare occasions they’re lethal to one of the protagonists. Over the years I’ve witnessed dozens of these encounters between Bald Eagles over food but only occasionally do they actually fight, although when they do it can appear to be truly vicious.<\/p>\n Thankfully I’ve never seen a death or even a serious injury result from such an encounter.<\/p>\n Ron<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The bullies of the refuge square off against each other.<\/p>\n