I Can’t Sleep - Bald Eagle | Gentle Bedtime Reading for Sleep

Episode Date: April 16, 2024

Relax with this calm bedtime reading on the bald eagle, created to ease insomnia and bring comfort to restless nights. In this soothing episode, Benjamin explores the story of America’s national bird, from its biology and hunting habits to its symbolism in history and culture. His gentle, steady narration blends education with relaxation—no whispers, no hypnosis, just calm, fact-filled storytelling to quiet the mind. Whether you’re seeking relief from stress, anxiety, or sleeplessness, press play, unwind, and drift into peaceful rest while learning about the remarkable bald eagle. Want More? Request a Topic: https://www.icantsleeppodcast.com/request-a-topic Ad-Free Episodes: https://icantsleep.supportingcast.fm/ Shop Sleep-Friendly Products: https://www.icantsleeppodcast.com/sponsors Join the Discussion on Discord: https://discord.gg/myhGhVUhn7 This content is derived from the Wikipedia article on Bald Eagle, available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike (CC BY-SA) license. Read the full article: Wikipedia – Bald Eagle. Happy sleeping! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

You're listening to a Glassbox media podcast. What if I told you that most of the modern day self-help advice you've been hearing could actually make you worse? The key to a better life isn't about feel-good gimmicks that sound catchy. The Mentally Stronger Podcast gives you access to a licensed therapist who shares science-backed tools that will actually change your life. Hi, I'm Amy Morin, psychotherapist, mental strength trainer, and international best-selling author. In each episode, we cover research-back strategies, like how to stop relying on willpower and start creating habits for lasting change. And the five mental strength-building exercises you can do from your couch.

I also speak to world-class experts like Dr. Nicole Kane, who shares how to permanently heal anxiety by addressing the root cause. With over 200 episodes in our catalog, this podcast is for you if you're ready to crush self-doubt, conquer challenges, and become stronger than ever with therapist-approved strategies that can change your life. Listen to Mentally Stronger with Therapist Amy Morin, wherever you get your podcasts. Welcome to the I Can't Sleep Podcast, where I read random articles from across the web to bore you to sleep with my soothing voice. I'm your host, Benjamin Boster. Today's episode is from a Wikipedia article titled Bald Eagle. The Bald Eagle, the Bald

eagle is a bird of prey found in North America. A sea eagle, it has two known subspecies, and forms a species pair with the white-tailed eagle, which occupies the same niche as the bald eagle in the Palearctic. Its range includes most of Canada and Alaska, all of the contiguous United States, and Northern Mexico. It is found near large bodies of open water, with an abundant food supply and oil. supply and old-growth trees for nesting. The bald eagle is an opportunistic feeder which subsists mainly on fish, which it swoops down upon and snatches from the water with its talons. It builds the largest nest of any North American bird and the largest tree nests ever recorded for an animal species up to four meters deep, 2.5 meters wide, and one metric ton in weight.

sexual maturity is attained at the age of four to five years Bald Eagles are not bald The name derives from an older meaning of the word Whiteheaded The adult is mainly brown with a white head and tail The sexes are identical in plumage But females are about 25% larger than males The yellow beak is large and hooked

The plumage of the immature is brown The bald eagle is the national bird of the United States of America and appears on its seal. In the late 20th century, it was on the brink of extirpation in the contiguous United States. Populations have since recovered, and the species' status was upgraded from endangered to threatened in 1995 and removed from the list altogether in 2007. The bald eagle is placed in the genus Haleetus, sea eagles, and gets a little bit more than the genus. It's both its common and specific scientific names from the distinctive appearance of the adult's head. Bald in the English language is from an older usage, meaning having white on the face or head,

rather than hairless, referring to the white head feathers contrasting with the darker body. The genus name is Neo-Latin, Haleitus, from the ancient Greek Lytosh, literally Sea Eagle, and the specific name leucosephalus is Latinized ancient Greek, Liskosh, white, and kifali head. The bald eagle was one of the many species originally described by Carl Linnaeus in his 18th century work, Sistema Natura, under the name Valco-Lucosephalus. There are two recognized subspecies of Bald Eagle.

H.I. Leucocephalus is the nominate, subspecies, it is found in the southern United States and Baja California Peninsula. H.I. Washington Isis, synonym H.I. Alaskanus, Townsend, 1897, the northern subspecies, is larger than the southern nominate, leucosephalus. It is found in the northern United States, Canada, and Alaska. The bald eagle forms a species pair with the white-tailed eagle of Eurasia. This species pair consists of a white-headed and a tan-headed species of roughly equal size. The white-tailed eagle also has overall somewhat paler brown body plumage.

The two species fill the same ecological niche in their respective ranges. The pair diverged from other sea eagles at the beginning of the early Miocene, at the latest, but possibly as early as the early middle oligosine, 28 million years ago BP. if the most ancient fossil record is correctly assigned to this genus. The plumage of an adult bald eagle is evenly dark brown with a white head and tail. The tail is moderately long and slightly wedge-shaped. Males and females are identical in plumage coloration, but sexual dimorphism is evident in the species,

and that females are 25% larger than males. The beak, feet, and irises are bright yellow. The legs are feather-free and the toes are short and powerful with large talons. The highly developed talon of the hind toe is used to pierce the vital areas of prey, while it is held immobile by the front toes. The beak is large and hooked with a yellow seer. The adult bald eagle is unmistakable in its native range. The closely related African fish eagle, Halliades-Wosophir,

from far outside the bald eagles range, also has a brown body, albeit of somewhat more rufous hue, white head and tail, but differs from the bald eagle and having a white chest and black tip to the bill. The plumage of an immature is a dark brown overlaid with messy white streaking until the fifth, rarely fourth, very rarely third year, when it reaches sexual maturity. Immature bald eagles are distinguishable from the golden eagles. eagle, the only other very large non-volterine raptorial bird in North America, and that the former has a larger, more protruding head, with a larger beak, straighter-edged wings, which are held flat, not slightly raised, and with a stiffer wing bead, and feathers which do not completely cover the legs.

When seen well, the golden eagle is distinctive in plumage with a more solid warm-brown color than an immature bald eagle, with a reddish golden patch to its nape, and in immature birds, a highly contrasting set of white squares on the wing. The bald eagle has sometimes been considered the largest true raptor, exopitrid, in North America. The only larger species of raptor-like bird is the California condor, a New World vulture which today is not generally considered a taxonomic ally of true exopitrids. However, the golden eagle averaging 4.1a kilograms and 63 centimeters in wing cord length in its American race is merely 455 grams lighter in mean body mass and exceeds the bald eagle and mean wing cord

length by around 3 centimeters. Additionally, the bald eagle's close cousins, the relatively longer winged but shorter-tailed white-tailed eagle, and the overall larger Stellars Sea Eagle, may rarely wander to coastal Alaska from Asia. The bald eagle has a body length of 70 to 102 centimeters. Typical wingspan is between 1.8 and 2.3 meters and mass is normally between 3 and 6.3 kilograms. Females are about 25% larger than males, averaging as much as 5.6 kilograms

and against the male's average weight of 4.1 kilograms. The size of the bird varies by location and generally corresponds with Bergman's rule. The species increases in size further away from the equator and the tropics. For example, eagles from South Carolina average 3.27 kilograms in mass and 1.88 meters in wingspan, smaller than their northern counterparts. One field guide in Florida listed similarly small sizes for bald eagles there, at about 4.13 kilograms. Of intermediate size, 117 migrant bald eagles in Glacier National Park were found to average 4.22 kilograms, but this was mostly, possibly post-disperseal,

juvenile eagles, with six adults here averaging 4.3 kilograms. Wintering eagles in Arizona, winter weights are usually the highest of the year, since, like many raptors, they spend the high. highest percentage of time foraging during winter were found to average 4.74 kilograms. The largest eagles are from Alaska, where large females may weigh more than 7 kilograms and span 2.44 meters across the wings. A survey of adult weights in Alaska showed that females there weighed on average 5.3 kilograms, respectively, and males weighed 4.23 kilograms, against immatures which averaged 5.09 kilograms and 4.05 kilograms in the two sexes.

An Alaskan adult female eagle that was considered outsized weighed some 7.4 kilograms. R.S. Palmer listed a record from 1876 in Wyoming County, New York, of an enormous adult bald eagle that was shot and reportedly scaled 8.2 kilograms. Among standard linear measurements, the wing cord is 51.5 to 69 centimeters. The tail is 23 to 37 centimeters long, and the tarsis is 8 to 11 centimeters. The Coleman reported ranges from 3 to 7.5 centimeters, while the measurement from the gabe to the tip of the bill is 7 to 9 centimeters. The bill size is usually variable. Alaskan Eagles can have up to twice the bill length of birds from the southern United States,

Georgia, Louisiana, Florida, with means including both sexes of 6.83 centimeters and 4.1 2 centimeters in Coleman length, respectively, from these two areas. The call consists of weak staccato chirping whistles, somewhat similar in cadence to a goal's call. The calls of young birds tend to be more harsh and shrill than those of adults. The bald eagle's natural range covers most of North America, including most of Canada, all of the continental United States, and northern Mexico. It is the only sea eagle endemic to North America. Occupying varied habitats from the bayous of Louisiana to the Sonoran Desert

and the eastern deciduous forests of Quebec and New England, northern birds are migratory, while southern birds are resident, remaining on their breeding territory all year. At minimum population in the 1950s, it was largely restricted to Alaska, the Aleutian Islands, northern and eastern Canada and Florida. From 1966 to 2015, Bald Eagle numbers increased substantially throughout its winter and breeding ranges, and as of 2018, the species nests in every continental state and province in the United States and Canada. The majority of bald eagles in Canada are found along the British Columbia coast, while large populations are found in the forests of Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba, and Ontario.

Bald eagles also congregate in certain locations in winter. From November until February, 1 to 2,000 birds winter in Squamish-British-British-Columbia, about halfway between Vancouver and Whistler. In March 2024, bald eagles were found nesting in Toronto for the first time. The birds primarily gather along the Squamish and Chicamus rivers, attracted by the salmon spawning in the area. Similar congregations of wintering bald eagles at open lakes and rivers, where in fish are readily available for hunting or scavenging,

are observed in the northern United States. It has occurred as a vagrant twice in Ireland. A juvenile was shot illegal in Fermanagh on January 11, 1973, misidentified at first as a white-tailed eagle, and an exhausted juvenile was captured near Castle Island County Kerry on November 15, 1987. There is also a record of it from Lynn Coran Anglesey in the United Kingdom from October 17, 1978. The provenance of this individual eagle has remained in dispute.

The bald eagle occurs during its breeding season in virtually any kind of American wetland habitat, such as sea coasts, rivers, large lakes or marshes, or other large bodies of open water, with an abundance of fish. Studies have shown a preference for bodies of water with a circumference greater than 11 kilometers, and lakes was an area greater than 10 kilometers squared are optimal for breeding bald eagles. A bald eagle typically requires old growth and mature stands of coniferous or hardwood trees

for perching, roosting, and nesting. Tree species reportedly is less important to the eagle pair than the tree's hide, composition, and location. Perhaps of paramount importance for the species is an abundance of comparatively large trees surrounding the body of water. Selected trees must have good visibility, be over 20 meters tall, an open structure, and proximity to prey. If nesting trees are in standing water, such as in a mangrove swamp,

the nests can be located fairly low at as low as six meters above the ground. In a more typical tree standing on dry ground, nests may be located from 16 to 38 meters in hide. In Chesapeake Bay, nesting trees averaged 82 centimeters in diameter and 28 meters in total height, while in Florida the average nesting tree stands 23 meters high and is 23 centimeters in diameter. Trees used for nesting in the greater Yellowstone area averaged 27 meters high. Trees or forest used for nesting should have a canopy. cover of no more than 60% and no less than 20% and be in close proximity to water.

Most nests have been found within 200 meters of open water. The greatest distance from open water recorded for a bald eagle nest was over three kilometers in Florida. Bald eagle nests are often very large in order to compensate for size of the birds. The largest recorded nest was found in Florida in 1963. and was measured at nearly 10 feet wide and 20 feet deep. In Florida, nesting habitats often consist of mangrove swamps and shorelines of lakes and rivers,

pines, seasonally flooded flatwoods, hardwood swamps, and open prairies and pasture land with scattered tall trees. Favored nesting trees in Florida are slash pines, longleaf pines, lob lulli pines, and cypress trees, but for the southern coastal areas, mangroves are usually used. In Wyoming, groves of mature cottonwoods or tall pines found along streams and rivers are typically bald eagle nesting habitats.

Wyoming Eagles may inhabit habitat types ranging from large old-growth stands of ponderosa pines to narrow strips of riparian trees surrounded by Rangeland. In southeast Alaska, Sitka spruce provided 78% of the nesting trees used by eagles, followed by hemlocks at 20%. Increasingly, eagles nest in human-made reservoirs stocked with fish. The bald eagle is usually quite sensitive to human activity while nesting, and is found most commonly in areas with minimal human disturbance. It chooses sites more than 1.2 kilometers from low density. human disturbance, and more than 1.8 kilometers from medium to high-density human disturbance. However, bald eagles will occasionally nest in large estuaries or secluded groves within major cities,

such as Hardtack Island on the Willamette River in Portland, Oregon, or John Hines National Wildlife Refuge at Tinacom in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, which are surrounded by a great quantity of human activity. Even more contrary to the usual sensitivity to disturbance, a family of bald eagles moved to the Harlem neighborhood in New York City in 2010. While wintering, bald eagles tend to be less habitat and disturbance sensitive. It would commonly congregate its spots with plentiful perches and waters with plentiful prey and in northern climes partially unfrozen waters. alternately non-breeding or wintering bald eagles, particularly in areas with a lack of human disturbance,

spend their time in various upland, terrestrial habitats, sometimes quite far away from waterways. In the northern half of North America, especially the interior portion, this terrestrial inhabitants by bald eagles tends to be especially prevalent because unfrozen water may not be accessible. Upland-wintering habitats often consist of open habitats with concentrations of medium-sized mammals, such as prairies, meadows, or tundra, or open forests with regular carry-on access. The Bald Eagle is a powerful flyer and soars on thermal convection currents. It reaches speeds of 56 to 70 kilometers per hour when gliding and flapping, and about 48 kilometers per hour while carrying fish. Its dive speed is between 120 and 160 kilometers per hour,

though it seldom dives vertically. Regarding their flying abilities, despite being morphologically less well adapted to faster fly than golden eagles, especially during dives, the bald eagle is considered surprisingly maneuverable in flight. Bald eagles have also been recorded catching up to and then swooping under geese in flight, turning over and thrusting their talons into the other bird's breast.

It is partially migratory depending on location. If its territory is accessed open water, it remains there year-round, but if the body of water freezes during the winter making it impossible to obtain food, it migrates to the south or to the coast. A number of populations are subject to post-breeding dispersal mainly in juveniles. Florida Eagles, for example, will disperse northwards in the summer.

The Bald Eagle selects migration routes which take advantage of thermals, updrafts, and food resources. During migration, it may ascend in a thermal and then glide down, or may ascend in updrafts created by wind against a cliff or other terrain. Migration generally takes place during the daytime, usually between the time, usually between the local hours of 8 a.m. and 6 p.m. when thermals are produced by the sun. The bald eagle is an opportunistic carnivore with the capacity to consume a great variety of prey. Fish often comprise most of the eagle's diet throughout their range. In 20 food habit studies across the species range, fish comprise 56% of the diet of nesting eagles, birds 28%, mammals 14% and other prey.

2%. More than 400 species are known to be included in the bald eagle's prey spectrum, far more than its ecological equivalent in the old world the white-tailed eagle is known to take. Despite its considerably lower population, the bald eagle may come in second amongst all North American excipitrids, slightly behind only the red-tailed hawk and number of prey species recorded. To hunt fish, the eagle swoops down over the water and snatches the fish. out of the water with its talons. They eat by holding the fish in one claw and tearing the flesh with the other. Eagles have structures on their toes called spicules that allow them to grasp fish.

Osprey also have this adaptation. Bird prey may occasionally be attacked and flied, with prey up to the size of Canadian geese attacked and killed in mid-air. It has been estimated that the gripping power, pounds per square inch, of the bald eagle, is ten times greater than that of a human. Bald eagles can fly with fish at least equal to their own weight, but if the fish is too heavy to lift, the eagle may be dragged into the water. Bald eagles are able to swim in some cases dragging its catch ashore with its talons, but some eagles drown or succumb to hypothermia. Many sources claim that bald eagles, like all large eagles, cannot normally take flight, carrying prey more than half of their own weight, unless aided by favorable wind conditions.

On numerous occasions, when large prey, such as large fish, including mature salmon or geese, are attacked, eagles have been seen to make contact and then drag the prey in a strenuously labored low flight over the water to a bank, where they then finish off and dismember the prey. When food is abundant, an eagle can gorge itself by storing up to one kilogram of food in a pouch in the throat, called a crop. Gorgeing allows the bird to fast for several days if food becomes unavailable. Occasionally, bald eagles may hunt cooperatively when confronting prey, especially relatively large prey such as jackrabbits or herons, with one bird distracting potential prey, while the other comes behind it in order to ambush it. While hunting waterfowl, bald eagles repeatedly fly

at a target and cause it to dive repeatedly, hoping to exhaust the victim so it can be caught. White-tailed eagles have been recorded hunting waterfowl in the same way. When hunting concentrated prey, a successful catch often results in the hunting eagle being pursued by other eagles and needing to find an isolated perch for consumption if it is able to carry it away successfully. They obtain much of their food as carry-on or via a practice known as kleptopper. parasitism, by which they steal prey away from other predators. Due to their dietary habits, bald eagles are frequently viewed in a negative light by humans. Thanks to their superior foraging ability and

experience, adults are generally more likely to hunt live prey than immature eagles, which often obtain their food from scavenging. They're not very selective about the condition or origin, whether provided by humans, other animals, auto accidents, or natural causes, of a carcasses presence, but will avoid eating carry-on where disturbances from humans are a regular occurrence. It will scavenge carcasses up to the size of whales, though carcasses of ungulates and large fish are seemingly preferred. Congregated wintering waterfowl are frequently exploited for carcasses to scavenge by immature eagles in harsh winter weather, Bald eagles also may sometimes feed on materials scavenged or stolen from campsites and picnics, as well as garbage dump usage is habitual mainly in Alaska, and fish processing plants.

In southeast Alaska, fish comprise approximately 66% of the year-round diet of bald eagles, and 78% of the prey brought to the nest by the parents. Eagles living in the Columbia River estuary in Oregon were found to rely on fish for 90% of their dietary intake. At least 100 species of fish have been recorded in the bald eagles diet. From observation in the Columbia River, 58% of the fish were caught alive by the eagle, 24% were scavenged as carcasses,

and 18% were pirated away from other animals. In the Pacific Northwest, spawning transatlost, Spawning trout and salmon provide most of the Bald Eagle's diet from late summer throughout fall. Though Bald Eagles occasionally catch live salmon, they usually scavenge spawn salmon carcasses. Southeast Alaskan Eagles largely prey on pink salmon, Coho salmon, and more locally sock-eye salmon with Chinook salmon. Due to the Chinook salmon's large size, 12 to 18 kilograms, average adult size, probably being taken only as carrying. and a single carcass can attract several eagles.

Also important in the estuaries in shallow coastlines of southern Alaska are Pacific Herring, Pacific Sandlands, and Yulatchin. In Oregon's Columbia River estuary, the most significant prey species were large-scale suckers. 17.3% of the prey selected there. American Shad, 13%, and Common Carp. 10.8%. Eagles living in the Chesapeake Bay in Maryland were found to subsist largely on American gizzard shad, threadfin shad, and white bass. Floridian eagles have been reported to prey on catfish, most prevalently the brown bullhead, and any species in the genus ectalrus, as well as mullet, trout, needlefish, and eels. Chain pickerels and white suckers are frequently taken in interior main.

Wintering Eagles in the Platte River in Nebraska preyed mainly on American gizzard sheds and common carp. Bald eagles are also known to eat the following fish species. Rainbow trout, white catfish, rock greenling, Pacific cod, Atka mackerel, largemouth bass, northern pike, striped bass, dogfish shark, and blue walleye. Fish taken by bald eagles very unsize. But bald eagles take larger fish than other pisivorous birds in North America, typically range from 20 to 75 centimeters, and prefer 36 centimeter fish. When experimenters offered fish of different sizes in the breeding season around Lake Britain in California,

fish measuring 24 to 38 centimeters were taken 71.8% of the time by parent eagles, while fish measuring 23 to 27.5 centimeters were chosen only 25% of the time. At nests around Lake Superior, the remains of fish, mostly suckers, were found to average 35.4 centimeters in total length. In the Columbia River estuary, most preyed on by eagles were estimated to measure less than 30 centimeters, but larger fish between 30 and 60 centimeters or even exceeding 60 centimeters in length also taken especially during the non-breeding seasons. In Nago Lake,

eagles frequently take northern pike up to 80 centimeters long. They can take fish up to at least twice their own weight, such as large mature salmon, carbs, or even muskalunge, by dragging its catch with talons and pull toward ashore. Much larger marine fish such as Pacific halibut and lemon sharks have been recorded among Bald Eagle prey, though probably are only taken as young, as small, newly mature fish, or as carry-on. Benthic fishes, such as catfish, are usually consumed after they die and float to the surface, though while temporarily swimming in the open may be more vulnerable to predation than most fish,

since their eyes focused downwards. Bald eagles also regularly exploit water turbines which produce battered, stunned, or dead fish easily consumed. Predators who leave behind scraps of dead fish that they kill, such as brown bears, gray wolves, and red foxes, may be habitually followed in order to scavenge the kills secondarily. Once North Pacific salmon die off after spawning, usually local bald eagles eat salmon carcasses almost exclusively.

Eagles in Washington need to consume 489 grams of fish each day for survival, with adults generally consuming more than juveniles, and thus reducing potential energy deficiency and increasing survival during winter. Behind fish, the next most significant prey base for bald eagles or other water birds. The contribution of such birds to the eagle's diet is variable, depending on the quantity and the availability of fish near the water surface. water birds can seasonally comprise from 7% to 80% of the prey selection for eagles in certain localities. Overall, birds are the most diverse group in the bald eagles prey spectrum,

with 200 prey species recorded. Bird species most preferred as prey by eagles tend to be medium-sized, such as western grebes, mallards, and American coots, as such prey is relatively easy for the much larger eagles to catch and fly with. American herring goal are the favorite avian prey species for eagles living around Lake Superior. Black ducks, common iders, and double-crested cormorants are also frequently taken in coastal Maine, and Velvet Scoder was dominant prey on San Miguel Island.

Due to easy, accessibility, and lack of formidable nest defense against eagles by such species, bald eagles are capable, of preying on such seabirds at all ages, from eggs to mature adults, and they can effectively coal large portions of a colony. Along some portions of the North Pacific coastline, bald eagles, which had historically preyed mainly on kelp-dwelling fish, and supplementally sea otter pubs, are now preying mainly on seabird colonies, since both the fish, possibly due to overfishing, and otters, cause unknown, have had steep population declines, causing concern for seabird conservation. Because of this more extensive predation, some biologist has expressed concern that murs are heading for a conservation collision due to heavy eagle predation.

Eagles have been confirmed to attack nocturnally active burrow-nesting seabird species, such as storm petrels and sheer waters, by digging out their burrows and feeding on all animals they find inside. If a bald eagle flies close by, water birds will often fly away en masse, though they may seemingly ignore a perched eagle in other cases. When the birds fly away from a colony, this exposes their unprotected eggs and nestlings to scavengers such as goals. While they usually target small to medium-sized birds, larger seabirds such as great black-backed gulls and northern gannets and brown pelicans of all ages

can successfully be taken by bald eagles. Similarly, large water birds are occasionally prey as well. Geese such as wintering emperor geese and snow geese, which gather in large groups, sometimes becoming regular prey. Smaller ross's geese are also taken, as well as large-sized Canadian geese. Predation on the largest subspecies has been reported. Large wading birds can also fall prey to bald eagles. For the great blue herons, bald eagles are their only serious enemies of all ages. Slightly larger sandhill cranes can be taken as well.

While adult whooping cranes are too large and formidable, their chicks can fall prey to bald eagles. They even occasionally prey on adults. adult tundra swans. Young trumpeter swans are also taken, and an unsuccessful attack on an adult swan has been photographed. Bald eagles have been recorded as killing other raptors on occasion. In some cases, these may be attacks of competition or kleptoparasatism on rival species, but end with consumption of the dead victims. Nine species each of other excipitrids and owls are known to have been preyed upon by bald eagles. Howl prey species have ranged in size from western

screech owls to snowy owls. Larger diurnal raptors known to have fallen victim to bald eagles have included redtailed hawks, peregon falcons, northern goshhocks, ospreys, and black and turkey vultures. Amalian preys are generally less frequently taken than fish or avian prey. However, in some regions such as landlocked areas of North America, wondering bald eagles may become habitual predators of medium-sized mammals that occur in colonies or local concentrations, such as prairie dogs and jack rabbits. Bald eagles and Seeds Scotty National Wildlife Refuge often hunt and pear to catch rabbits and prairie dogs. They can attack and prey on rabbits and hairs of nearly any size, from marsh rabbits to black and white tailed jackrabbits and arctic hares. In San Luis Valley, white-tailed jackrabbits can be

important prey. Additionally, rodents such as montane voles, brown rats, muskrats, neutrious, and various squirrels are taken as supplementary prey. Even American porcupines are reportedly attacked and killed.