They are freaking hawks! They pluck the feathers off other birds while in their talons before they start tearing meat off the live victim. Not a nice creature.
In the Midwest, eagles seem to enjoy deer roadkil.
That’s why I dislike hawks, they are very cruel. Bears are the same, they eat their prey alive. Mother nature is not really that pleasant in the kill or be killed department.
The bulk of their food is fish and roadkill.
They do eat snow geese occasionally, if they can catch them. In the Midwest they dive at snow geese flocks, causing the geese to fly up in one great mass, bumping into and injuring each other. The injured ones fall back to the ground or fall behind the flock of other geese, making them easy pickings for the Eagles.
But, eagles are not intentionally cruel, as humans sometimes are. They are hunting for food to hold back hunger, or to feed their rapidly growing chicks, not looking to entertain themselves or to make themselves feel powerful, as a criminal would. When an eagle takes prey it dispatches it as quickly as it is able, it doesn’t exactly have a veterinary kit to knock its victims out before consuming.
The prey is unlikely to feel very much, usually the adrenaline released in trauma and shock pretty much dulls it. Saying that as someone who has been run over by farm machinery, bit by animals on occasion, and once, assaulted by a nutcase intent on blinding me (which was the worst)— you don’t really feel that much after the initial hit/bite because your adrenaline and heart and other systems go crazy.
I agree with Franklin. The turkey should have been the national bird, since it can easily feed a family of 4 for a week!