Urgent call to help bald eagle reveals it ate so much, it was ‘too full to fly’

American bald eagles may be beautiful, majestic creatures, but one just embarrassed the heck out of itself in the mountains of east Tennessee.

To hear the state’s Wildlife Resources Agency recount the incident, officers rushed to the rescue after a caller told them this proud symbol of our nation was “injured” near Bulls Gap.

“They found the eagle in the woods near a road with no apparent injuries and very mobile,” the department posted Tuesday on Facebook. “The officers caught the bird to inspect it.”

That’s when they realized the 24-year-old eagle was not injured, but was instead suffering from severe gluttony.

“It had gorged itself on a meal and was temporarily unable to create enough lift to fly,” the state posted. “Too full to fly.”

The state’s Facebook post of the incident has since been shared hundreds of times, with unforgiving commenters referring to the eagle as “a gluttonous hog with wings.”

“How American is that?” noted Jonathan Fullington on Facebook.

“We can all identify with this,” added Scott McFarland.

Photos of the eagle were also shared and it looked both annoyed and uncomfortable at the intrusion. (In one photo, an officer is seen holding the bloated bird upside down.)

State officials didn’t guess what it ate (this happened in November), but eagles are opportunistic feeders known to gobble fish, “waterfowl, turtles, rabbits, snakes, and other small animals,” the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service says.

Gluttony is among the species’ less appealing habits, according to the National Eagle Center.

”Because food sources may not be available daily, an eagle can gorge on food when it is available and hold up to 2 pounds of food in their crop,” the center says. “Eagles can eat up to 1/3 of their own body weight in food.”

This story was originally published February 25, 2020 at 11:28 AM with the headline "Urgent call to help bald eagle reveals it ate so much, it was ‘too full to fly’."