How much weight can a bald eagle carry?
Just recently, a photographer was watching some foxes hunt rabbits. One of the foxes caught a rabbit when a bald eagle swooped down grabbed the rabbit and pulled both rabbit and fox into the air. The fox let go and the eagle took the rabbit..
That brings up the question of how much weight can a bald eagle carry?
1 answer
According to the Alaskan Fish And Game department,
"The wings of an eagle need to support the eight to 12-pound bird as well as whatever the bird is carrying, and best estimates put the lifting power of an eagle at four or five pounds. ..."
But as the article continues,
"Lift is dependent not only on wing size, but on airspeed. The faster a bird (or plane) is flying, the greater the lift potential. An eagle that lands on the beach to grab a fish, and then takes off again, is limited to a smaller load than an eagle that swoops down at 20 or 30 miles an hour and snatches up a fish. That momentum and speed gives the bird the ability to carry more weight."
This may or may not explain Amazing Bird Records for:
greatest weight-carrying capacity: bald eagle lifting a 6.8 kg (15 lb) mule deer
This post was sourced from https://outdoors.stackexchange.com/a/19455. It is licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0.
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