Have you ever seen an eagle carrying prey or tree branches in its talons?
Perhaps you’re wondering, how much weight can an eagle carry?
Can eagles carry off dogs or humans?
What You’ll Learn TodayHow Much Weight Can an Eagle Carry Away?What’s the Heaviest an Eagle Can Carry?Can an Eagle Pick Up a Dog?Can an Eagle Pick Up a Human?What Bird Can Carry the Most Weight?Conclusion
How Much Weight Can an Eagle Carry Away?
But despite their wide wingspan and powerful talons, they can’t carry a whole lot of weight
Exactly how much weight an eagle can carry depends on the species
Most species can only carry a few pounds at a time
For example, bald eagles generally weigh about 10 to 12 pounds and can carry about one third of their own weight
So the average amount of weight a bald eagle can carry is 3 to 4 pounds
Some bald eagles are larger and stronger than others; these may be able to carry a slightly higher amount of weight
The eagle’s age may also play a role; mature eagles in their prime will be able to carry more weight than very young or very old eagles
Another important factor is momentum–how fast the eagle is flying and how much they have to slow down to pick up their load
In general, greater airspeed allows them to carry more weight because their momentum aids their strength
A bald eagle (or any eagle, for that matter) can snatch a large fish or a bird of prey while in flight, often barely slowing their flight pattern in the process
They can carry a heavier load this way than if they had to land first
“An eagle that lands on the beach to grab a fish, and then takes off again, is limited to a smaller load than an eagle that swoops down at 20 or 30 miles an hour and snatches up a fish
That momentum and speed gives the bird the ability to carry more weight”
Regardless of exact weight, eagles can’t travel as far with heavier loads as they can with lighter loads
If they are unable to transport a large kill all at once, they will sometimes divide their prey into smaller chunks and transport them to the nest in separate pieces
What’s the Heaviest an Eagle Can Carry?
In North America, a bald eagle may be able to carry up to 7 or 8 pounds if conditions are ideal
Golden eagles may be able to carry a bit more, but even most of the largest eagles in the world will not be able to carry more than 10 or 12 pounds at once
This giant jungle-dwelling eagle can haul up to 20 pounds at once under ideal conditions
To be able to carry the maximum amount of weight, an eagle would need the following conditions:
A high rate of speed–at least 20 to 30 miles per hour–and the ability to maintain much of that speed as they grab their intended load;
The ability to snatch the load in flight without having to land;
If the load is prey, it would need to be weak, injured, or otherwise unable to fight back
Of course, these ideal conditions rarely all come together at once, so even though an eagle may be able to carry prey and objects of unusually large weights, they rarely do
You may have heard stories about eagles diving at dogs and carrying them off, leash and all
It is true that some eagles may have the strength to carry off some small dogs, depending on the weight of the dog
Generally, though, eagles stay away from dogs because they don’t like getting too close to people
So, the chance of having your dog picked off by an eagle, even if you see them hanging around your local dog park, is extremely rare
Even larger dogs may be at risk if they are alone, as eagles have the ability to kill much larger prey than they can carry and they will take whatever they can get if they’re starving
Similar to the dog stories, there have been rumors of eagles picking up and carrying off children, especially younger children who are still quite small
First of all, it’s extremely unlikely that an eagle could lift and carry a child, as even a newborn baby would be almost too heavy for an eagle’s slight frame
They will not risk approaching adult humans even if they are fairly confident in their ability to carry off the children
That said, it’s important to keep children close at all times if you live in an area with eagles
Young eagles may dive at very small children who get lost or separated from other people in the group, which may cause serious injuries
Young eagles learn how to hunt by experimenting, by testing the limits of what they can and can’t do
Of all eagles, juveniles are the most likely to attempt to carry off kids or pets, but even then, this is extremely rare and unlikely
What Bird Can Carry the Most Weight?
This powerful bird, which lives in Central and South America, appears to be capable of carrying the most weight of any bird of flight
The harpy eagle stands 3 to 4 feet tall and has a wingspan of up to 8 feet
These eagles weigh up to 20 pounds and can carry up to their own weight if conditions are ideal
Though harpy eagles don’t make a habit of carrying 20 pounds every time they go out for a hunt, they will regularly carry around 10 to 12 pounds
Harpy eagles have been known to eat a wide variety of prey, including ocelots, iguanas, boa constrictors, and even caimans
Check out this video to learn more about harpy eagles:
https://wwwyoutubecom/watch?v=fS1TfANV0WAVideo can’t be loaded because JavaScript is disabled: Beware The Harpy!
Most eagles can carry 3 to 4 pounds, though some are able to carry much more
The harpy eagle, for example, can carry up to 20 pounds of weight at once
How much weight an eagle can carry depends on their species, how fast they are flying, how wide their wingspan, and even how old they are
On February 12 of 2020, DM2 pole-vaulted into the nest with a stick that looked more like a small tree!
On November 6 of 2019, Mr North dropped a stick of unknown weight, although it was clearly more than he could lift from the ground: https://youtube/x0Cb6S79Kz4
And on November 4th of 2015, photographer Alex Lamine photographed the female bald eagle at Berry College carrying a very large stick, which she dropped
How much can bald eagles carry?
Under the right conditions, a little over 100% of their body weight!
We’ve speculated quite a bit about how much weight eagles can carry
I talked to Professor Jim Grier (he has studied birds of prey extensively and owned golden eagles) , Brett Mandernack, Neil Rettig, Chuck Sindelar (a friend of Bob’s who was deeply involved in bald eagle recovery), Jon Gerrard (who wrote The Bald Eagle: Haunts and Habits of a Wilderness Monarch with Gary Bortolotti), and Professor David Bird (among other things, the author of The Bird Almanac, A Guide To Essential Facts and Figures of the World’s Birds)
They told me that the amount of weight a bird could carry was highly dependent on the situation, including:
How the object was carried
Was it caught and carried in flight (with momentum) or dead-lifted from the ground?
The direction the object was being lifted in
Was the object being lifted up or down?
It looks like he broke the stick off somewhere above the nest and glided down rather than lifting up
What the eagle experts said about eagles, flight, and sticks
Grier compared eagles with aircraft and talked about dynamics, flight conditions, and how the object was carried: “I sometimes got the impression that my golden eagle could carry as much or more in his crop than in his feet, but never got any good measurements or wrote down details
For example, he could capture a large rabbit that he could not fly with…but then he’d eat most of it and be able to fly with a really full crop
I think the trim of the eagle, as in airplanes, and drag/balance of carried items, is important” He added: “Flight conditions make a big difference, particularly at the limit of weight, as with aircraft
The best conditions are high air pressure with a steady wind plus room and conditions for a good take-off, all of which affect the ability to get airborne and then stay airborne
I’ve seen bald eagles carry large fish under some conditions, for example, that they couldn’t under other conditions”
According to the FAA, center of gravity deviations as small as three inches can dramatically change the handling characteristics of some fully loaded aircraft
When Jim’s golden eagle ate a large rabbit, it was for all practical purposes ‘balancing’ the cargo in its crop, which is located in the center of its neck above the top of its chest
In this case, balance was a bigger issue than weight as far as lift and stable flight were concerned
For more information on how the center of gravity affects flight, watch this video: https://youtube/00CGAPOp7A0
Chuck Sindelar wrote about watching golden eagles play with sticks outside of nest-building season
A second golden eagle would follow the first up into the sky and would get into a position where, when the first bird with the stick dropped it, the second bird would dive and regrab it, often before the stick reached the tops of the trees below
Sometimes he would have to pull out of his dive and allow the stick to hit and enter the trees, and then both birds world move a bit away and do this all over again with a new stick” He also pointed out that while he had never personally seen a bald or golden eagle carrying sticks that large, he had often seen them in nests
Jon Gerrard expressed interest in how sticks are carried
In the case of the Berry female and DM2: “…it would be more common for an eagle to fly in to a limb, usually a dead limb, and break it off in flight
And how far did it carry it before dropping the limb?” He recounted a story from the book “The Bald Eagle Haunts and Habits of a Wilderness Monarch”, which he wrote with Gary Bortolotti (pages 35 and 36)
The female regularly caught and carried Snow Geese (Blue phase) – probably weight 45 to 6 pounds – for up a a mile and a half to their nest
The Geese were caught high and the eagle was able to glide down to the nest with the goose
The feat was likely possible because the geese were caught high in the air and going to the nest was downhill
Since this eagle was nesting in the southern part of the range, the female’s weight would likely be in the 8 to 11 pound range, so the bird would likely have been carrying about half its weight”
Neil Rettig shared some of the observations he made filming bald eagles along the Mississippi river: “In 2015 I was able to get a nice shot on video of a bald Eagle near Stoddard collecting a big branch from the canopy of a cottonwood tree
I also filmed a juvenile bald eagle 2 winters ago catching an adult mallard in the air and having a hard time keeping it aloft
In high winds eagles can lift more, as Jim pointed out
In general, the expert panel felt that in most circumstances, it would be unlikely for a bald eagle to carry much more than 50-60% of its body weight
However, it might carry more if the incentives and flying conditions were right: favorable winds, a down-carry versus an up-carry, a momentum capture versus a dead-lift, plenty of maneuvering and flapping space, a well-balanced load, and a highly desirable object like a large stick or a dead fawn
How much can birds carry?
Professor Bird provided a table from his book, The Bird Almanac, A Guide To Essential Facts and Figures of the World’s Birds, which I found absolutely astonishing!
According to his information, a bald eagle should be able to carry 108% of its body weight
Check out the American kestrel at 145%, the Pallas’s Fish Eagle at 160%, or (Bella fans take note!) the tiny Calliope Hummingbird carrying its mate – 116% of its body weight!
Under favorable conditions, eagles can carry, or at least glide, with around 108% of their body weight
He probably weighs around nine pounds, although we don’t know how much the stick weighed
But he took off from a low angle, he had to put a lot of work into gaining lift, the wind was blowing from an unfavorable direction, he lost lift making a turn towards the nest, and the stick was swinging slightly, making it harder to carry
Once he dropped the stick, it was more than he could dead lift from the ground
So why did DM2 bring a heavy stick in when Mr North and the Berry College female failed?
Those two eagles might have had ideal conditions for snapping sticks (favorable winds and plenty of room), but they were trying to lift heavy, poorly-balanced sticks with the weight to one side
Their sticks swung rapidly down to hang like a weight below each eagle, causing them to roll, pitch, and lose lift
Sudden center of gravity changes are never a good thing, especially when the object you are flying with weighs more than you do!
DM2 appeared to be gliding down, not lifting up, and his trajectory carried him – and his giant stick – right into the nest!
Thanks so much to Jim Grier, Chuck Sindelar, Jon Gerrard, David Bird, Brett Mandernack, and Neil Rettig for talking to me!
Professor Bird’s book, The Bird Almanac, A Guide To Essential Facts and Figures of the World’s Birds: https://smileamazoncom/The-Bird-Almanac-Essential-Figures/dp/1552979253/
Jon Gerrard and Gary Bortolotti’s book, The Bald Eagle Haunts and Habits of a Wilderness Monarch: https://smileamazoncom/Bald-Eagle-Haunts-Wilderness-Monarch/dp/0874744512/
Barry College Eagles Facebook Page: https://wwwfacebookcom/berrycollegeeagles/
FAA regulations on weight and balance
These birds of prey come in huge sizes, but does this mean they are also strong enough to carry heavy large prey?
Perhaps their size makes you wonder: how much weight can an eagle carry?
The answer depends on the eagle species, but according to comparison studies, this bird can carry, on average, a minimum of 3 pounds to as heavy as 20 pounds
Table of ContentsHow Much Can an Eagle Lift?Eagle Lifting Weights by Species1
Steller’s Eagle (Haliaeetus pelagicus)Factors Affecting the Carrying Capacity of EaglesFrequently Asked QuestionsConclusion
How Much Can an Eagle Lift?
Eagles are powerful birds of prey
They are capable of hunting and carrying a good-sized mammal or reptile
In general, eagles have an average carrying capacity that is relative to their size
They will not attempt to carry anything that is considerably heavier than their weight
On average, a male eagle can lift prey weighing 07 kilograms or 15 pounds
A female eagle, according to another source, can lift 11 kg (25 lb) to 14 kilograms (3 lb) depending on the wind conditions and whether the prey is dead or alive
Specific species have different carrying capacities, which will be discussed in the next section
Eagle Lifting Weights by Species
It is also one of the largest existing species of eagle in the world
This bird has black and white feathers: black on the head and the upper side of the body and predominantly white on the underside
Among harpy eagles, the female is significantly larger than the male with an average weight of 6 to 9 kg
Meanwhile, the male harpy eagle weighs around 4 to 6 kg, or 88-132 lb
Harpy eagles often hunt from trees, and they are known to easily carry prey that is half their weight
Minimum carrying capacity: 3 to 45 kg (or half of their weight on average)
Maximum carrying capacity: 18 kilograms (40 lb)
The bald eagle is a sea eagle of the genus Haliaeetus
It is a large bird of prey that feeds mainly on fish
It is not bald, but this majestic bird derived its moniker from an archaic English term that means “white-headed”
Both the male and female bald eagles have the same color, but the size sets them apart, since the female is bigger than its male counterpart, weighing 56 kg (12 lb) versus 41 kg (95 lb) on average
Bald eagles are considered as opportunistic carnivores because they eat all kinds of prey ranging from an assortment of fish, birds, to mammals
Bald eagles can lift the weight of fish at least equal to their body mass, but according to some sources, they cannot lift more than half of their weight
There have been proven accounts of bald eagle carrying deer
This bird carried a mule deer in flight with a weight of 68 kg
Maximum carrying capacity: 68 kg (15 pounds)
Also known as the Pacific Eagle, the Steller’s eagle is a bird of prey that is active during the daytime
The average weight of a female eagle is 62 kg to 95 kg (137 to 209 lb)
The male Steller’s eagle weighs lighter than the female at around 49 to 68 kg (108 to 15 lb)
It is one of the largest birds of prey and the largest species in the genus it belongs to
It can carry prey that weigh around 49 to 11 lb or 22 to 5 in kg
Some sources say Steller’s eagles can also get fish that weigh around 6 to 7 kg (13 to 15 lb)
Minimum carrying capacity: 22 kg to 5kg (49 to 11 lb)
Minimum carrying capacity: 22 kg to 5kg (49 to 11 lb)
Maximum carrying capacity: 6 to 7 kg (13 to 15 lb)
Factors Affecting the Carrying Capacity of Eagles
1 The size and wingspan of the eagle
The anatomy of the eagle, specifically the wingspan and size, determines how many pounds it can lift
An expansive wingspan can help an eagle hold more weight and affect flight aerodynamics
Aside from that, the age of the bird is another factor that affects its ability to carry heavy prey while flying
More mature birds tend to have tougher talons to hold food and more experience in hunting and determining which prey they can lift
2 Wind conditions, direction, and speed
The weather conditions of the day, such as the presence of a headwind and the speed and direction of the prevailing wind can affect how much an eagle can lift
The speed of the eagle or its momentum as it flies down to catch its target also aids this bird in carrying weight
A faster speed increases strength, so it is not surprising to see an eagle pick up a goat in an accelerated motion
3 The behavior of the object/prey
Live prey may be difficult to carry, unless it is injured or relatively smaller than the eagle
Eagles will struggle to carry smaller animals when they are resisting and fighting back
Cats are not its preferred prey because of their sharp claws, and birds such as the bald eagle would rather catch fish than take animals such as cats
Eagles are strongly built because of their size and anatomical features such as their powerful legs, wide wingspan, and strong talons
An eagle holds its prey in its talons with a force ten times stronger than our hands can exert
What is the weight of an eagle?
The weight of an eagle depends on the species
The previous section cited the average weight of certain eagle types
One of the heaviest eagles is the Steller’s eagle, which boasts a weight of around 5 to 10 kilograms (11 to 22 lb)
The European golden eagle has an average weight of 28-46 kg or 62 to 101 pounds for the males, while the female golden eagle is heavier at 38 to 67 kg (84-148 lb)
Yes, an eagle can pick up a small dog easily
The size it can carry depends on the species of the eagle as well as the weight of the dog
Eagles do not actively target dogs as prey, especially when there are humans present
Eagles cannot carry humans because the weight of an adult human (612 kg or 135 lb on average) is more than the weight of most species of eagles
Eagles are truly one of the strongest birds in the world
So, how much weight can an eagle carry?
As a general rule, they can only carry animals or objects equivalent to half or equal their weight
If you see an eagle carrying a fox (which is quite heavy for this bird), it was perhaps due to other conditions such as the speed of the eagle and the wind conditions