Raptor rumble: Owls fight Decorah eagles for their nest

DECORAH –

Decorah's famous bald eagles are in a knock-down fight for their nest.

The opponent? A pair of great horned owls who want to take it over.

The raptor rumble was captured on nest cameras, which have gathered more than 300 million viewers in five years on Ustream.

"The footage is shocking," said Bob Anderson, creator of the Web phenomena and director of the Raptor Resource Project in Decorah. "This is the first time it's ever been documented. Ever."

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The footage captured last week shows a male great horned owl landing in the newer of two nests that the Decorah eagles are preparing to lay their eggs in. You can hear the owl's low muffled hooting, audible for great distances and a terror to mammals everywhere. A bald eagle off camera emits its own call.

The battle is on. A male bald eagle swoops in and chases off the owl. Seconds later, a blurring bullet of feathers enters the screen — "at Mach 5," Anderson said. A female great horned owl knocks the eagle clean off the nest.

It wasn't the first time the eagles and owls have had a king-of-the-nest scrape. It likely won't be the last, Anderson said.

"We are going to have a battle," Anderson said.

It's a contest pairing size versus ferocity. The bald eagle averages an 83-inch wing span and weighs 10 pounds. Great horned owls average 48 inches and 3.7 pounds. But the owls are considered "the tigers of the air," Anderson said.

"They are capable of taking dogs, cats, skunks. I've seen great horned owls feed on wood ducks," he said. "They take over other birds' nests, usually red-tailed hawks, or nest in caves or cliff tops."

If you're going to rob a nest, it might as well be the home of celebrity eagles. This eagle pair has been showing off for the world in a nest first constructed nine years ago.

The two nests the eagles have constructed are enormous structures that Anderson calls "Volkswagens in trees." The 20 chicks produced have been celebrated. The newer nest is 400 feet away, but both overlook the good fish dining of the trout hatchery.

The eagles are due to lay their eggs in roughly three weeks, which will take a month to hatch. But the great horned owl also nests in January and February and needs a month.

"It's going to be interesting. Whoever lays the first egg will get the nest," Anderson said. "That's my guess."

He's hoping the pairs come to their senses, and each takes one nest, creating a sort of online double feature.