{"id":7858,"date":"2013-03-15T03:55:04","date_gmt":"2013-03-15T09:55:04","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/?p=7858"},"modified":"2025-09-17T06:29:20","modified_gmt":"2025-09-17T11:29:20","slug":"four-year-old-bald-eagle-eating-a-fish","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2013\/03\/15\/four-year-old-bald-eagle-eating-a-fish\/","title":{"rendered":"Four Year Old Bald Eagle Eating A Fish"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"FourFour year old Bald Eagle devouring a small carp – Nikon D200, f9, 1\/320, ISO 250, Nikkor 200-400mm VR with 1.4x TC at 400mm, natural light, bird caught its own prey, not baited<\/span><\/p>\n

It was the day after Christmas in 2009 when I watched this four year old Bald Eagle lift off from this pole to catch this fish in the water impoundment nearby and to my surprise it flew right back to the same pole to devour it.<\/p>\n

The Eagle was too far away when it grabbed the fish out of the water to get decent images but it gave me quite a show as it ate the small carp.<\/p>\n

It takes about 5 years for a Bald Eagle to obtain its adult plumage and the summer after this was taken the Bald Eagle pictured above would have molted into it.<\/p>\n

After this image was taken someone stuck a very ugly, reddish colored bat box on this pole and while I support the action of providing bats with shelter I do wish they had placed it about a foot down from the top of the pole because the bat box is not at all photogenic and the larger raptors like this Bald Eagle don’t use the pole as a perch as frequently as they once did.<\/p>\n

Life is<\/em> good.<\/p>\n

Mia<\/p>\n

Click here<\/span><\/a> to see more of my Bald Eagle photos plus facts and information about this species.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It was the day after Christmas in 2009 when I watched this four year old Bald Eagle lift off from this pole to catch this fish in the water impoundment nearby and to my surprise it flew right back to the same pole to devour it. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":135309,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":true,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[151,27,697,26],"tags":[846,6360,5390,3903,3133,4286,851,4432,2161,4152,4094,5497,153,30,4095,373,10924],"class_list":["post-7858","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-bald-eagle","category-avian","category-farmington-bay-wma","category-utah","tag-bald-eagle","tag-carp","tag-devouring","tag-eagle","tag-eagles","tag-eating","tag-farmington-bay-waterfowl-management-area","tag-fish","tag-four-year-old","tag-haliaeetus-leucocephalus","tag-marsh","tag-pole","tag-raptors","tag-utah-2","tag-wetlands","tag-winter","tag-wooden-pole"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/10\/bald-eagle-prey-mia-mcpherson-3739.jpg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p11Mom-22K","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":4680,"url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2012\/03\/26\/bald-eagles\/","url_meta":{"origin":7858,"position":0},"title":"Bald Eagles In Northern Utah","author":"Mia McPherson","date":"March 26, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"Normally during the month of February Farmington Bay Waterfowl Management Area has hundreds of Bald Eagles within its boundaries but that was not the case in February 2012.","rel":"","context":"In "Bald Eagles"","block_context":{"text":"Bald Eagles","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/category\/avian\/diurnal-raptors\/bald-eagle\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Adult Bald Eagle in flight in morning light, Farmington Bay WMA, Davis County, Utah","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/bald-eagle-adult-mia-mcpherson-4990.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/bald-eagle-adult-mia-mcpherson-4990.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, 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Utah","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/02\/bald-eagle-4-year-old-mia-mcpherson-3398.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/02\/bald-eagle-4-year-old-mia-mcpherson-3398.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/02\/bald-eagle-4-year-old-mia-mcpherson-3398.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/02\/bald-eagle-4-year-old-mia-mcpherson-3398.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":30465,"url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2015\/10\/19\/bald-eagle-landing-on-ice-in-a-fog-at-farmington-bay-wma\/","url_meta":{"origin":7858,"position":2},"title":"Bald Eagle landing on ice in a fog at Farmington Bay WMA","author":"Mia McPherson","date":"October 19, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"During the winter Farmington Bay has a large population of overwintering Bald Eagles that migrate down from northern states and Canada.","rel":"","context":"In "Baiting"","block_context":{"text":"Baiting","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/category\/wildlife-ethics\/baiting\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Bald Eagle landing on ice in a fog, Farmington Bay WMA, Davis County, Utah","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/bald-eagle-landing-mia-mcpherson-4370.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/bald-eagle-landing-mia-mcpherson-4370.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/bald-eagle-landing-mia-mcpherson-4370.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, 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Utah","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/02\/bald-eagle-adult-landing-mia-mcpherson-2674.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/02\/bald-eagle-adult-landing-mia-mcpherson-2674.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/02\/bald-eagle-adult-landing-mia-mcpherson-2674.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/02\/bald-eagle-adult-landing-mia-mcpherson-2674.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":3878,"url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2011\/12\/19\/the-bald-eagles-are-returning-to-the-valley\/","url_meta":{"origin":7858,"position":4},"title":"The Bald Eagles are Returning to the Valley","author":"Mia McPherson","date":"December 19, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"During the summer months I don't often see Bald Eagles unless I go up into the high country or travel north of Utah to Idaho, Wyoming or Montana but in the Salt Lake Valley many Bald Eagles come in to spend the winter.","rel":"","context":"In "Bald Eagles"","block_context":{"text":"Bald Eagles","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/category\/avian\/diurnal-raptors\/bald-eagle\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Four year old Bald Eagle up close, Farmington Bay WMA, Davis County, Utah","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/02\/bald-eagle-portrait-mia-mcpherson-3428.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/02\/bald-eagle-portrait-mia-mcpherson-3428.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, 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