Shortly after dawn on March 8, a Polson-area homeowner glanced out his window and noticed a group of crows pecking at what appeared to be a pair of dead bald eagles in his yard.

After arriving at the scene, biologist Steph Gillin discovered that the birds were alive, but locked together head-to-toe — each eagle’s talons piercing deep into the other’s face.

“When we got to them, it was unreal,” said Gillin, a wildlife biologist for the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes. “We deal with bald eagles quite often, but generally they’re injured and don’t have a lot of fight. ... They were still pretty feisty.”

Like other birds of prey, bald eagles are aggressive, territorial animals. Gillin guessed that given the ongoing nesting season, the raptors were likely sparring over territory or food. And when they become stressed, she added, their tendency is to squeeze tighter.

“There was no way to separate them without clipping [their talons],” she said. “At first I tried to pry them out, and there was no way. They were both so stubborn and so locked in place that they were not letting loose. I ended up having to clip three total.”

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