Why do eagles grunt like pigs?

I came home from work on a recent Friday afternoon to find a very large bird hiding among the bushes in my backyard. That’s not unusual. I frequently spot ravens, robins, jays and other smaller species bouncing around.

This particular bird would try to fly off, but it would fail to get off the ground and would return to very nearly the same spot every time.

 

It would slowly walk around, sometimes up a hill into a wire fence. After emerging from behind the bushes, I realized that this bird was really a raptor, a juvenile eagle.

I called raptor centers in Sitka and Juneau, and I told them that the possibly dazed and confused eagle could easily wander out into North Douglas Highway traffic unless I tried blocking its path.

They advised me to keep an eye on it, but they were unlikely to intervene themselves unless the eagle was hurt or in immediate danger.

I could approach within 3 feet of the eagle and it would sometimes jump back a few steps, but it seemed reluctant or unable to fly away for any distance longer than 20 feet.

I also noticed another eagle, an adult high up in a tree nearby, appearing to keep watch on what was probably its offspring.

Finally, after about 4 hours trying to get the eagle to fly off, it hurriedly hopped away from me while making some rather unusual noises that sounded like a grunting pig.

Listen to audio of a fledgling eagle grunting like a pig before it flies away:

The eagle found a new piece of high ground to flap its wings, and it finally took to the air.

Afterward, I talked to Steve Lewis, a raptor specialist with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service in Juneau. He said it sounded like it was an eagle fledgling, or a hatchling from earlier this year.

“It sounds to me like a bird that very recently left the nest,” Lewis said. “So, it may not be very good at flying.”

Lewis said the immediate priority for fledglings is learning to fly, with one or both parents providing food for awhile.

“Often, they just practice in the tree itself,” Lewis said.

After getting a handle on flying, the juvenile learns to forage while either shadowing older eagles to their usual food sources or just wandering around on their own. Adult eagles may migrate hundreds, even thousands of miles back and forth among seasonal food sources.

Listen to Steve Lewis of U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service explain fledgling eagle behavior:

According to Lewis, the unusual sounds the eagle made were probably warnings of distress. Perhaps, it was trying to tell me that it didn’t like me getting too close.

Lewis said this fledgling probably has less than a 50 percent chance of reaching maturity because of predation, fights with other eagles, or even getting hit by cars. But survival rates get much better as eagles mature into adults, usually about 5 years old.

Listen to Steve Lewis of U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service explain eagle longevity:

Lewis said the oldest recorded eagle in Alaska was 31 years old. Here’s hoping that this grumpy baby lives that long.

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