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From: grp@Unify.com (Greg Pasquariello)
Newsgroups: rec.birds
Subject: Re: The buzzards of Hinkley
Message-ID: <1990Dec12.092030@Unify.com>
Date: 12 Dec 90 17:20:30 GMT
References: <1990Dec9.010930.15344@redpoll.neoucom.edu> <2510@mentor.cc.purdue.edu> <1990Dec10.170017.26347@midway.uchicago.edu> <10775@helios.TAMU.EDU> <1599@cluster.cs.su.oz.au>
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Reply-To: grp@Unify.com (Greg Pasquariello)
Distribution: rec.birds,usa
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In article <1599@cluster.cs.su.oz.au>, andrewt@cs.su.oz (Andrew Taylor) writes:
> In article <10775@helios.TAMU.EDU> e343gv@tamuts.tamu.edu (Gary
Varner) writes:
> > I've always wondered how different a nation we might have become if
the
> > turkey vulture -- a shy, quiet scavenger -- had been our national
bird,
> > rather than the bald eagle -- a noisy, aggressive raptor 
> 
> Isn't the Bald Eagle reputation and hence its choice as US national
bird
> based (anthromorphically) on its appearance? I thought, like many
eagles,
> it is by preference a timid scavenger, taking live prey only when
carrion is
> unavailable.

Bald Eagles often take carrion, mostly dead fish and the like.  They
will
also take live fish and some small mammals.  They often harass other
species, most often Ospreys and Gulls, in order to pirate their catch as
well.
I believe it was the first and last traits that caused Ben Franklin to
declare 
it unfit for the national symbol.

> 
> Does the Bald Eagles range touch Asia? In other words are there
> Soviet Bald Eagles?

The bald eagle has indeed been recorded in Siberia.  Rather ironic.
> 
> Andrew

--

---
Greg Pasquariello	
Unify Corporation 	grp@Unify.Com