Bald Eagle eating Ruddy Duck

Description:

The Bald Eagle is an opportunistic carnivore with the capacity to predate a great variety of prey. Throughout their range, fish often compromise the lion's share of the eagle's diet. Rudy Duck: Adult males have a rust-red body, a blue bill, and a white face with a black cap. Adult females have a grey-brown body with a greyish face with a darker bill, cap and a cheek stripe. The southern subspecies ferruginea is occasionally considered a distinct species. It is separable by its all-black face and larger size. The subspecies andina has a varying amount of black coloration on its white face; it may in fact be nothing more than a hybrid population between the North American and the Andean Ruddy Duck. As the Colombian population is becoming scarce, it is necessary to clarify its taxonomic status, because it would be relevant for conservation purposes.

Notes:

Having gotten there too late for the hunt, we watched the spectacle of the juvenile Bald Eagle eating the Ruddy Duck. There are so many ducks and other birds, the Bald Eagles have, what seems like, an unlimited supply of food, being that there were easily over 100,000 birds at Tule Lake, CA.