Scraping For Food

The northern subspecies of the bald eagle (Haliaeetus leucocephalus washingtoniensis), is found throughout the northen United States, Canada, and Alaska. They are a little larger than the southern subspecies and they increase in size the further north they are found. It is the only sea eagle in North America. The scientific name means "white-headed sea eagle." It is found near large bodies of open water with an abundant food supply and old-growth trees for nesting.

The bald eagle is an opportunistic feeder which subsists mainly on fish, which it swoops down and snatches from the water with its talons, and carrion. Especially in winter and in inland areas such as Grand Teton National Park, it scavenges winter killed carcasses. This subadult was perched on a fence pole at the National Elk Refuge in Jackson, Wyoming. It was pretty focused on getting the last tiny bits of meat off a bone it had scavenged from a winter kill.

Over the course of about 15-minutes, it dropped the bone three times. The first two times it swooped down, picked it back up and returned to the post. After the third drop, it just stood there looking alternately left, right, and at me.

Jackson, National Elk Refuge, Teton County, Wyoming, USA, January 8, 2017. Nikon D90, AF-S Nikkor 70-300mm with Kenko N-AF 1.4X Teleplus Pro 300 resulting in 420mm, f/4.5-5.6 at 300mm, Manual Exposure mode, f/9 for 1/200 second, ISO 200, processed in Lightroom CC and Photoshop CC.