Gunnar Ketill Sigurðsson, a farmer on Kross in Berufjörður fjord, East Iceland, experienced a close encounter with a white-tailed eagle that got trapped inside the farmer’s sheep shed a fortnight ago. According to Vísir.is there have been numerous eagle sightings in the Djúpivogur district, East Iceland, over the past month. The Icelandic white-tailed eagle population is mostly local to the country’s west coast and rarely seen on the east coast.
Read more: The eagle population is making a strong comeback
“When I entered the shed I saw the bird fluttering around, the poor thing. It probably entered through a door I had left half open. I’m not sure who was more afraid, the bird or I,” said the farmer when asked about the incident.
Gunnar said the sheep were also quite startled but unharmed. “The bird did not attack the sheep, it just kept fluttering around.”
Read more: A couple of city slickers became sheep farmers by accident
The white-tailed eagle is a very large bird, with a wingspan of 1.78 to 2.45 m (5.8–8.0 ft). They breed in northern Europe and northern Asia. Up until 1970 the breed experienced dramatic declines in most of Europe and became extinct in many areas. However, conservation actions led to recovery of many local populations.
The eagle population in Iceland counted 74 adult couples in 2014 and has tripled in size after it became illegal to poison foxes in Iceland in 1964.
Gunnar Ketill Sigurðsson, a farmer on Kross in Berufjörður fjord, East Iceland, experienced a close encounter with a white-tailed eagle that got trapped inside the farmer’s sheep shed a fortnight ago. According to Vísir.is there have been numerous eagle sightings in the Djúpivogur district, East Iceland, over the past month. The Icelandic white-tailed eagle population is mostly local to the country’s west coast and rarely seen on the east coast.
Read more: The eagle population is making a strong comeback
“When I entered the shed I saw the bird fluttering around, the poor thing. It probably entered through a door I had left half open. I’m not sure who was more afraid, the bird or I,” said the farmer when asked about the incident.
Gunnar said the sheep were also quite startled but unharmed. “The bird did not attack the sheep, it just kept fluttering around.”
Read more: A couple of city slickers became sheep farmers by accident
The white-tailed eagle is a very large bird, with a wingspan of 1.78 to 2.45 m (5.8–8.0 ft). They breed in northern Europe and northern Asia. Up until 1970 the breed experienced dramatic declines in most of Europe and became extinct in many areas. However, conservation actions led to recovery of many local populations.
The eagle population in Iceland counted 74 adult couples in 2014 and has tripled in size after it became illegal to poison foxes in Iceland in 1964.
