After catching a meal, usually fish, eagles quickly kill the animal with their grasping feet and dagger-like talons. Flying to a favorite perch or look-out, eagles will use their sharply hooked beaks to snip and pluck the feathers or fur away. If the prey is a small animal, eagles will swallow it whole but they tear off mouth-sized chunks of larger food. Bones, feathers, and hair that cannot be easily digested are later regurgitated. These competent sea eagles are capable of spotting and snatching fish directly from the water's surface.
Eagles are also scavengers that search the waterways and highways for dead carcasses.
This method of finding food saves time and energy, and cleans the ecosystem all at the same time. A bald eagle couple builds a nest a few feet below the top of a living tall tree or on a rocky outcrop. They choose an open site so they have a clear view of the neighborhood as well as an unobstructed flight pad. Parent birds take turns incubating their clutch of one to three eggs and both adults feed and brood the eaglets until they are ready to fledge. During the years when prey is scarce, the largest chick may claim so much of the food that its siblings could perish.