I am sure there must be some Bald eagles up here in North Jersey.. but I've only seen American or maybe Golden eagles... I think
However .. TODAY .. without mistake ( white head of feathers) ....I saw a dead Bald Eagle off to the side of the road in the fast lane of Rt. 46 west bound in Little Falls...
That was curious enough but a hour later I saw another one off to the side of the fast lane again but in the East Bound lane about 3 -5 miles further west in Wayne, NJ.

What is the likelyhood of that?
Were they eating other road kill?

I wonder what happened.

Interesting and odd. Looking forward to someone with an answer. By the way, it is illegal to possess eagle feathers, unless you are a Native American....and even restrictions on those.

Bald eagles are not as uncommon as game officials/wildlife researchers would like you to believe. Obviously, there is a desire to preserve the 'rare and majestic' (AMERICAN!) image of the bald eagle, so they'll tell you what they see fit. Personally, I've seen many in the wild over the years. I believe there was a local story of one of the birds that was trying to roost in someone's house but my memory's too fuzzy - it was years ago.

FYI... if it's news to anyone, they're not officially endangered anymore. They took them off that status about 5 years ago.

Yes, I realize seagulls are not Bald Eagles but it is the mechanics of the accident that are unusual...

I used to commute over a bridge that exits close to the ocean in a fishing port. Seagulls would occasionally follow the fishing boats up to the pier next to the bridge. The gulls would get bored and start to swoop over passing cars that are averaging 50mph. Occasionally one would get caught in the air stream that flows over the vehicle. The air stream passing over also goes downward at the rear of the vehicle. The bird cannot maneuver the sudden downdraft and would get slammed to the road. Since its legs were up the bird gets it "keel" broken, is in pain and cannot fly. It sometimes stagers off to pass but more often is hit, this time on the road, by the next passing car. I have seen this happen to a passing car and had it happen to my vehicle, the bird never touched the vehicle as it passed over and got "body slammed" to the road.

I am proposing that an Eagle could get caught in a vehicle air stream and have a similar accident...

Chas

Maybe, but they are a powerful bird. Two dead in one area seems odd to me though.

They do eat road kill, as I've flown past one munching on a dead deer a couple years ago in northern Wisconsin. Surprised the heck outta' me, and that bird was huge, sitting right on top of the deer's side, pecking away, just a few feet off the road with cars whizzing by. Wouldn't surprise me in the least that one could easily be hit when taking off in such a situation...

I very nearly got one on the highway between Manitoba and Ontario.
It was contending with some ravens over a small road kill. The ravens
left as my truck approached. The eagle saw its chance, grabbed the
squirrel or whatever it was, and tried to grab air, coming over the
highway. The miss was only about ten feet...
Lots of them at the lake. The tourist resorts take all the fish guts out
to a rock in the water, and there have been as many as thirteen bald
eagles out there, waiting.
Nelson

I think it was the eagle's reputation as a scavanger that prompted Ben Franklin to propose a more noble bird -- the wild turkey -- as the national bird.
The turkey's been getting bad press ever since.

I've seen hawks killed beside the road, and other birds too, but never corvids: ie crows, ravens, bluejays. And the crows, especially, are constantly out on the pavement eating other roadkill. Crows seem to have cars and trucks all figured out.
-DS