How Much Weight Can an Eagle Carry? 11 Amazing Facts About Their Strength

If you’ve had the opportunity to take in a soaring eagle, you know what it’s like to stop and stare, your mouth agape. These grand birds are powerful apex predators with precise hunting skills. But how much weight can an eagle carry? Let’s find out!

How Much Weight Can an Eagle Carry?

Generally, eagles can carry anywhere between three to 20 pounds. It depends on the species. Smaller eagles may be more limited whereas Harpy eagles (the largest of all eagles) can carry up to 20 pounds at once. Momentum plays a role in how much they can carry as well. When their airspeed is faster, they can use that to their advantage and carry more weight.

11 Amazing Facts About Eagles and Their Strength

1. They’re Masterful at Conserving Their Energy

Eagles can lift and soar without much effort. They are remarkably skilled at gaining altitude without flapping their wings, and they have complete dominion of the skies. In fact, they make use of rising warm air to lift them up even higher, demonstrating their intelligence. Since they’ve mastered the art of gliding through the sky without having to flap their wings, they are able to conserve their energy. Conserving their energy via the way they glide makes them incredibly strong and powerful predators.

2. They Possess Impressively Precise Eyesight

The eyesight eagles possess is still being studied today as apparently, they can see through different lenses. They are able to focus on items that are very far from them and yet they can aim at them from a distance and come to the ground at the exact moment when the prey is there as if waiting. For example, they can catch fish with impressive precision! They weigh only 10 to 20 pounds themselves and they’re fast enough and strong enough to pick up prey the same as their own body weight!

3. Their Agility Requires a Double-Take

The capability they have with their agility is also awe-inspiring. They can grab their prey in an instant and if you watch a video in slow-motion, it appears as though their prey do not even realize when suddenly they are up in the air. And about their speed? They can reach 100 miles per hour in a dive alone, not to mention how quickly they can advance upward.

4. Their Grip Is Unreal   

Eagles have astonishingly strong talons. They are as big as a human hand, but they are incredibly sharp and 10 times stronger. They can not only carry animals and objects as much as their own weight, but once they grab something, it is not going anywhere but the eagle’s figurative plate. Their sharp talons work in tandem with their keen eyesight, making them consummate predators.

5. Their Beaks Shred Through Flesh

Their powerful hooked beaks are made to tear flesh apart — no matter what kind of prey it is! There is so much force that nothing stops an eagle from having a successful hunt and a succulent dinner. With the way their beaks are hooked, they are better able to get hold of and keep hold of their prey.

6. They’re Fiercely Protective and Territorial

These birds are very prideful of their own kingdoms and quite territorial. They are not afraid to use their talons to protect their nests. They even fight other eagles if they think their area is under threat. This can occur at any time during the nesting season and occasionally over food. But mostly eagles get aggressive when protecting their own.

7. They’re Incredibly Resilient

They do not understand borders, nor do they want to. They can travel extremely long distances — thousands upon thousands of miles! They can endure harsh weather but also difficult terrain. No matter how arduous, they keep their focus on the journey until they reach their final destination.

8. They Symbolize Strength and Power

These big, beautiful birds are symbolic. In many cultures throughout history, they are seen as symbols of strength and freedom but also power. The image they exude is so meaningful that they are highly regarded and respected throughout the world. The U.S. has even made the bald eagle its national bird!

9. They Were Once at the Brink of Extinction

Eagles are strong, self-reliant, and impressive every which way. When bald eagle populations dipped in the 1960s, conservation efforts were employed to restore the balance and give these birds a chance at life. They’ve since made an extraordinary recovery.

10. The Largest Eagles Have Some Serious Power

Harpy eagles are the largest type of eagle, sometimes weighing up to 20 pounds! The force they exert with their talons is an unbelievable 530 pounds per square inch. They also employ a unique hunting strategy, sometimes pushing goats off cliffs, letting gravity and the ground handle a kill for them.

11. They’re Brazen and Opportunistic

It’s rare for an eagle to attack a deer but in 2013, recorded footage in the Siberian wilderness showed a golden eagle attacking a deer. As is the case for victims of an eagle attack, the deer didn’t see it coming and took several moments to register the event.  

The photo featured at the top of this post is © PHOTOOBJECT/Shutterstock.com