One eagle dies, another recovering after aerial courting ritual goes awry

Two eagles were discovered embedded head-first in a Valdez, Alaska, snowbank last weekend in what a biologist suspects may have been a mating ritual gone wrong. One of the eagles died from the impact, but the other seemed only stunned.

Rescuers were left scratching their heads after a pair of bald eagles - a male and female - were found jammed head first into hard crusted snow, wings, feet and bodies facing towards the sky.

"It was like a plane crash," said Bob Benda, a professor of biology at Prince William Sound Community College after he was called to the scene by Valdez police. "I couldn't believe it when I looked."



Benda speculates the pair were engaged in a well-known eagle mating ritual involving locked talons and a spinning fall toward the ground. Usually, though, the eagles break apart before crashing.

Another theory is that the birds were electrocuted. They were found right below power lines, but a lineman who checked said he saw no evidence of electrical contact on the lines or the birds.

The surviving female was sent to the Bird Treatment and Learning Center in Anchorage this week, where she's being watched for possible head trauma and ligament damage.