Our Flyway moderators listed this as one of their favorite moments of 2020. A subadult bald eagle hooks a very large carp. It drags its catch to shore, only to lose it to a determined and hungry adult!
Why didn’t the subadult protect its catch? It might have been tired of fighting the fish, or the adult could have been flying in with a lot of attitude, or it might not have been very hungry. It could even have learned to give up food prior to fledging. Different eagles have different personalities and I suspect at least some younger siblings with combative older siblings retain a tendency to give up food unless they are really, really hungry. Whatever it was, the subadult didn’t go hungry – as we saw later on, there were enough leftovers for several eagles!
The Raptor Resource Project