Adult Bald Eagle Steals Juvenile’s Fish

These tidal flats at Spanish Banks in English Bay (Vancouver) are turning out to be a non-stop adventure of wildlife wonder! I come down very early today because I want to catch the good light during an early morning low tide. Way down on the farthest west reaches of the flats is a juvenile bald eagle eating a fish.
As I try to get close I discover it is much more skittish than the adults; it won’t even let me get within a hundred meters. We are engaged in a frustrating dance . . . me creeping up step by step, it wafting away from me at intervals, when I spot movement in the sky.
(CLICK IMAGES TO ENLARGE)

Bald Eagle DivingBald Eagle Swoop

Bald Eagle with Fish

Bald Eagle Flies

Bald Eagle Juvenile

Bald Eagle and Juvenile

I can’t capture it on film but the juvenile actually bobs back and forth from foot to foot at one point, kind of like, “Come ON! Give it BACK! That’s mine!!”

Bald Eagle Eating

Finally the adult bald eagle has had enough, and moves off to let the juvenile eat. The fact that the adult doesn’t chow the whole fish down tells me that it isn’t really hungry, just wants to teach the juvenile a lesson. Because all the bald eagles I have ever seen eat just piggishly scarf down their food, gobbling great pieces, letting bones and scraps and such scatter around them.

Bald Eagle Watches Juvenile

Bald Eagle Juvenile Eating

Bald Eagle Ocean

I find this behaviour fascinating; I know for a fact that the juvenile eagle had the fish first because it took me quite a while to get close enough to take these shots, and the adult was nowhere in sight. I’m guessing that – since bald eagles in the wild have no natural predator – the adults give the juveniles a hard time. Sort of field training, because as soon as they get their adult colours (five years old usually) they start nesting. That means they have to birth and rear chicks of their own. It also means they have to defend their territory against other birds of prey, especially bald eagles. So they need a lot of skills and to be very sharp.

Some time passes until the juvenile eagle has had its fill and simultaneously – almost as if on cue, which I also find odd – the two lift off at the same time, then fly away in opposite directions.

Bald Eagle TakeOff

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