The Eagle

Often times I am asked why in the world did I post about a certain subject......

"Like an eagle that rouses her chicks and hovers over her young, so he spreads his wings to take them up an carried them safely on his pinions"............ Deuteronomy 32:11

This is what inspired this post....first off I had to look up pinions and found that it was a very fancy name for wings.

Borrowed from http://2011susansdailydose.yolasite.com/6-2.php  you must visit this awesome site.....


 After my research I found that no, eagles don't carry their young on their wings and this was more of a metaphor often found in the Bible but in the process,  I learned some amazing things about the eagle!
The eagle is one the largest and most powerful birds of prey and they are notable for their powerful set of eyes. Even though their eyes are just slightly larger than human eyes, they can see up to 3½ times better than a person with perfect vision. An eagle can see a moving rabbit from a mile away from an altitude of 1,000 feet, and can see a fellow eagle soaring 50 miles away! It can also spot one of it's favorite food sources, fish swimming below the surface of the water. They can reach speeds close to 190 miles per hour and can and can glide from 35 to 55 miles per hour. They can rotate their head almost 270 degrees.

The eagle carries some 7.000 feathers from head to tail (now that's a lot of preening) and they can regulate their body temperature simply by changing the position of its feathers. It  has a wingspan of up 7 feet

 and the weight of  its feathers are about twice as much as its skeleton!

They mate for life

 and unlike many birds, which abandon their nests after their young ones are hatched, the eagle keeps building upon her old nest, remodeling it year after year.


An eagle’s nest, or eyrie, is started with a lot of large sticks, thorns and odd and ends to build the base. Next they get smalled sticks, twigs and grasses. Finally, just before they lay their eggs they pull down and feathers from their own bodies to line the nest.  It is repaired every year with additional sticks until it eventually becomes a heavy structure weighing more than a ton! One eyrie in Florida measured 10 feet wide and 20 feet high. Another in Ohio contained two tons of material when a storm knocked down the tree that held it for 35 years.


They tuck their powerful claws in to keep from hurting the eggs as seen in this Abc video
http://abcnews.go.com/US/decorah-eagle-live-camera-draws-webs-attention/story?id=13291412

When the chicks hatch (by a hook on top of their beaks to poke through the egg) they are small, featherless and ugly and weigh only three ounces but quickly they grow feathers and in only 45 days the eaglets will weigh 40 times their birth rate. They are enticed out of the nest due to outgrowing it and because the parents begin to withhold food. It has been stated that only 40% of the eaglets survive their first flight.

The bald eagle has been the national bird of the United States since 1782, when it was placed with outspread wings on the Great Seal of the country.

It is  the symbol of strength, courage, freedom.  

Click here for an amazing inspirational video