Bald Eagle in Baltimore

An immature bald eagle caused a stir in Baltimore today by landing on a city sidewalk in a residential neighorhood. It walked around on the sidewalk and the street for an hour and a half. Residents assumed that something was wrong with it and had called the Maryland Department of Natural Resources to send a wildlife rescuer. But before this could be arranged, the eagle flew away.

The Sun article provides two possible explanations from local wildlife experts. One focused on a possible injury.

"Why the heck it would stand around on Bolton Street for an hour? Who knows?" said Glenn Therres, associate director of the Wildlife and Heritage Service at the Maryland Department of Natural Resources. "I don't know if it flew into something and was dazed for a while. It could have been injured, but the fact that it flew away suggests the injury might not have been that severe."

At any given time, there are about 2,000 bald eagles in Maryland, Therres said. The eagles nest along the shores of tidal waters in the region, but the birds - which were upgraded to threatened from endangered in recent years - rarely if ever hang out on city sidewalks, Therres said.

"There are a lot of them floating around, acting like teenagers and juveniles, just kind of looking for a good place to eat or to socialize with other birds their own age," Therres said. "A wooded shoreline on the Potomac or Susquehanna [rivers], but not normally in an urban neighborhood in Baltimore City."

A second explanation is that it was merely resting.

David Curson, director of bird conservation for the Maryland and District of Columbia branch of the National Audubon Society, said the bird might have eaten a large catch of fish and was too stuffed and lazy to move.

"It's difficult to explain, but one possibility is, it may have eaten a large meal," Curson said. "Sometimes, when a bird like that eats a large meal like that it gets weighed down. But without knowing all the facts and not having seen the bird myself, it's difficult to be sure."