What Do Bald Eagles Eat?

Having beautiful brown plumage and white heads, bald eagles are the popular birds of prey. Their legs are featherless but possess powerful talons which aid in catching the prey. These are native to countries such as the United States, Canada, and most parts of Mexico and Alaska.

Apart from being carnivores, bald eagles are opportunistic feeders. Typically, their diet consists of fish. However, they don’t hesitate to try out the other food items including small mammals. Here, we’ll look at their particular diet and learn more about their feeding habits.

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Insects, Fish, and Animals

The majority of their diet consists of large fish. Hence, bald eagles eat fish, seagulls, salmon, largemouth bass, fish bones, bass, and other species of fish.

Bald eagles also consume a variety of other mammals and birds when the opportunity presents itself. Therefore, bald eagles eat roadkill, ducks, squirrels, foxes, snakes, cats, alligators, ants, dead animals, cats and dogs, and other birds.

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They are known to prey on domestic animals, birds, and their eggs as well. That being said, bald eagles eat live animals, small animals, birds, beavers, blue herons, baby ducks, baby geese, bats, carrion, and coyotes.

Together with these, bald eagles eat chickens, Canadian geese, goslings, crows, chipmunks, deer, dogs, garter snakes, red foxes, and geese. Yes, bald eagles eat at night, dead fish, dead deer, dead meat, meat, rats, rodents, trash, and their young as well.

And some other diverse animals and birds make up the diet of bald eagles. Bald eagles eat falcons, herons, gulls, blue jays, loons, mice, muskrats, moose, mink, frogs, mammals, and other birds’ eggs.

They can swoop down at a great speed while catching the prey, no matter how small or large they are.

Given their predatory feeding habits, bald eagles eat dogs and cats, grey squirrels, lambs, little dogs, sheep, small birds, turtles, turkeys, wild turkeys, and waterfowl.

Plus, bald eagles eat pets, puppies, puffins, pigeons, pheasants, peregrine falcons, prairie dogs, small dogs, rabbits, raccoons, and rattlesnakes.

In short, bald eagles eat your pets, ravens, wolves, eggs, birds, and worms as well!

Fruit, Vegetables, and Plants

Bald eagles don’t feed on vegetation because they are carnivores. Hence, bald eagles don’t eat plants, algae, or berries.

What do bald eagles eat in the winter?

Bald eagles eat fish, carrion, roadkill, and rodents in the winter.

What do bald eagles eat in the wild

Bald eagles eat small birds, large mammals including deer, foxes, and fish in the wild.

What do bald eagles eat in the desert?

Bald eagles eat fish such as desert suckers, flathead catfish, rodents, birds, and carrion in the desert.

What bald eagles don’t eat?

Bald eagles don’t eat insects, cicadas, grasshoppers, other bald eagles, or their own eggs or their dead young. Apart from these, bald eagles don’t eat goose eggs, fawns, groundhogs, great horned owls, woodpeckers, hummingbirds, owls, or hawks. And of course, bald eagles don’t eat otters, oysters, river otters, sea otters because they are fast to dive deep into the sea. Plus, bald eagles don’t eat humans, wolverines, lions, or osprey! Due to the limited food supply, bald eagles don’t eat every day.