Eagles are well documented to attack and kill prey such as kangaroosand wolves and deer, which are way above their ability to carry.
The harpy eagle would seem to be a poor example, since we know that the golden eagles will regularly take prey much, much larger than that.
I guess the problem is that the harpy eagle is designed to operate in closed forests forests. That means that it has short wings, no opportunity to stoop, no opportunity to harass and no opportunity to find injured prey that runs off or falls to the ground. Basically it has to take prey from short range, fast and instantly and then hold onto it. that rules out large prey items.
In contrast, the golden eagles operate in open terrain, they attack form a stoop, they will happily harass a victim for half an hour trying to kill it, and once injured they can follow their prey until it dies of its injuries. That enables them to kill much larger prey.
Whether an eagle could kill a grown human I’m not sure. If they can take out a 40kg kangaroo or deer then it’s within the bounds of possibility that they can take out a 40kg human. 40kg is within the average weight range for women in many Asian nations.
So my response would be that a golden eagle could take out a grown adult under the right conditions.
I don’t think humans are the normal targets of any bird, but a lot, if not most, birds are smart enough to go for the head, eyes, and hands if they do attack a human. For the most part they won’t go after humans but if they think you pose a threat to their offspring they will whip out the violence. They can do a lot of damage. Deaths are either from a lucky shot (hitting a major blood vessel, for example) or driving an intruder into some other danger, like falling off a cliff.
Parrots are rarely mentioned, but certainly the larger ones can remove fingers, noses, and other large chunks of person, and something like a macaw could tear out a human throat if that ever occurred to the bird.
I’ve heard stories about fatal bird attacks over the decades, but couldn’t provide proof any are true.
Allegedly, some Asian falconers that fly eagles have been killed by the birds, but that seems to be folk knowledge rather than based on documented incidents.
Now, the flightless birds like ostriches and cassowaries have, definitely, killed people on occasion. There are a lot of birds that fly that could conceivably kill a human, they have the natural weaponry and strength to cause fatal damage, but I’ve never been able to find proof that any actually have done so.
I’ve been attacked by an owl while bicycling. Came from behind and tried to grasp my Bell helmet with its talons. Another great reason to wear a helmet. No sound at all until the thwak and pull on the helmet. That was unexpected. I’d probably still be here posting/whining about my scars if my bald plate had been exposed.
That’s not really the problem - the problem is that even the largest of eagles (doesn’t really matter here whether you want to use the Golden Eagle or the Harpy Eagle as an example) is unlikely to perceive adult humans as a potential prey item. Most violent human/bird interactions result from the human approaching the bird or its nest, like snfaulkner and kayaker have mentioned.
That’s fair enough. The example of the Golden Eagle taking a deer is a good one - a much larger animal, and an unusual prey item. What about the differences between a deer and a human? The human is much more likely to be aware of the eagle, and human behavior (when to stare vs. when to run) is not much like the behavior of prey animals, and much more likely to be perceived as the behavior of a predator. Last but not least, the human is much more likely to fight back. Human hand-eye coordination is a lot better than hoof-eye coordination (I mostly just wanted to be able to type that) in the deer, and much more likely to cause damage to the eagle (as you say, the eagle had to harry the deer over a long period of time to kill it.)
Sure, you’re probably right - but the right conditions likely involve mind-control of the eagle to make it attack the person in the first place.
Not being an expert by any means, I imagine a human would be a lot less aware of the presence of an eagle than a deer would be, and surely less comprehending of the threat it posed.
The reference is to a human being more aware than a deer of what the eagle is and what’s happening after the initial attack, not before it swoops in. The idea is that the initial attack it’s self might not kill a large prey animal, but that the eagle (in open terrain) can continue to attack it over and over, accumulating damage and fatiguing the prey until the bird can finally overcome it. What’s being said is that a deer would instinctively just keep running after every attack rather than try to fight off the bird, which a human might be more incline to do and therefore maybe a human would fare a bit better.
You can watch falconry videos, particularly from the Mongolia region, showing eagles attacking medium sized prey in open plains, and yes they will repeatedly attack and pursue the animal which is usually desperately trying to outrun the bird and find shelter. They will also occasionally attack animals far to large to ever be considered prey, obviously in an attempt to drive them off. Search for a video of “top 7 eagle attacks” and one of them shows an eagle swooping in and smacking a grizzly bear on the back of the head.
There’s a well-made YouTube fake of an eagle-snatched baby that for a while got people excited on this OP. I’ll look around for it. (Good Doper that I am.)
I opened the thread to mention this, but ya beat me to it - I have heard there is good ethnographic evidence that Haast’s Eagle did, indeed, prey on humans on occasion.
I feel I should mention the owl theory in connection with the death of Kathleen Peterson. The evidence is hardly conclusive, however, consisting of a few microscopic feathers and the pattern of lacerations.
Here’s an unfortunate runner who was attacked by a buzzard in the UK. The article includes photos of lacerations on the man’s scalp caused by the bird.
However, raptor attacks are one thing; raptor predation is something else. We don’t know what motivated this bird -it may have been protecting a nest (I’ve been attacked by Canada Geese nest-protecting).
I have seen a human totally lose it and have as much sense as a dead goose in the sunshine when attacked by most any animal so this depends a lot on which human gets attacked.
A screaming hysterical human that can’t even gather enough wits to run or even attempt to defend itself is not going to stop a really pissed bird of
prey.
