Giant eagle with ‘dinosaur beak’ randomly assaults UK couple earlier than man punches fowl
EXCLUSIVE: A White Tailed Eagle randomly swooped on a couple as they walked in the Somerset countryside in the first recorded attack by the giant bird on a human since they were reintroduced in 2019
‘Eagle with ‘dinosaur beak’ randomly attacks couple’
A massive White Tailed Eagle randomly attacked a couple on a countryside stroll. The man and woman, both in their 20s, were walking along a stream near Axbridge, in Somerset, on the morning of November 22, when the UK’s biggest bird of prey swooped on them.
The pair, who asked not to be named, told the Daily Star they looked up and saw the bird’s talons just two feet away. “As we get towards the end of the lane, two feet in front of us, just above head height, is an eagle with its wings out and its claws out aimed at my head,” the man said.
“I swing my left hook and the eagle hit the ground. At this stage, I still don’t know it is an eagle. I am just like what the f*** is going on. Anyway, I knocked the eagle to the ground and I am sort of shocked. I looked at my partner and we both said, ‘is that an eagle?’ because it looked really like an eagle.
“It was so big and its legs were so muscular. I think I am pretty lucky it didn’t mess me up. Its legs were thick, and its beak was like a dinosaur.”
White Tailed Eagles, also known as sea eagles, were reintroduced in southern England in 2019 and this appears to be the first recorded attack on a human since then. The birds with a wingspan of up to two and a half metres have been known to kill lambs in Scotland, where they were reintroduced in the 1970s.
One Scottish farmer has even claimed sea eagles killed five of his Shetland pony foals.
The couple’s ordeal was not over, as they had been separated in the chaos, and the bird’s attention had turned to the woman.
“The bird moved its attention onto me”, she said. “I am behind the eagle and my partner is in front of it.
“The eagle does not want us to walk together and is being territorial over something. He is stalking me on the lane. Every time I try to get back to my partner, the eagle is spreading his wings and horribly turning his head 180 degrees at me.
“He is a fighter and he hates me. My partner is jumping up and down, making wild eagle noises to try and distract the bird while I am trying to get through a ditch back to my partner.”
The man added: “Eventually, my partner managed to get past the eagle and over to me by a fence at the next field. The eagle is still there on the ground at this point and I see a lady coming down the lane with two tiny dogs.
“The eagle definitely would have messed up those dogs. I warned the woman about the eagle, and she went back the other way.”
The couple’s attacker appears to be one of the White Tailed Eagles released along the southern coast of England as it was fitted with an ankle monitor.
The man added: “I showed my birdwatching brother and he told me it was a White Tailed Eagle. He was incredibly jealous that we got so close to one.”
For the latest breaking news and stories from across the globe from the Daily Star, sign up for our newsletter by clicking here .
