Have you ever seen a headless bald eagle? Okay, this bald eagle is not really headless and neither has this photograph been augmented to remove its head.
When you are a wildlife photographer you have to wait for long periods of time and click hundreds of pictures to capture that unique shot. Well, that’s what happened to me when I was taking pictures of a bald eagle pair next to the Police Academy in Washington, DC.
This eagle was preening (puffing up its feathers), probably to insulate itself from the cold temperatures that day. And when it started the preening process, I just started shooting at 11 frames per second hoping to capture something unique and this is just one of many captures of this eagle with its head in some really unique positions.
The eagle has the capacity to turn its head around to its back as depicted in this picture. I’m not sure if they can rotate it a full 360 degrees like the owl, but based on this capture and what I witnessed, it appears that way.
This is why I love photographing wildlife; it’s like a box of chocolate and you never know what you are going to get.