Sam the Eagle: Bald Eagle, Harpy Eagle, or Shoebill Stork?
Sam the Eagle and Jean Pierre Napoleon in a still from Muppets Most Wanted. (Image via the Sam the Eagle Muppet Wiki.)
Like many Gen Xers I spent my formative years watching the Muppets. In all the hours I spent watching Kermit the Frog trying to corral the Muppet gang into some sort of coherent production, the fact that Sam the Eagle is blue never once made me question whether he was really meant to be an American bald eagle.
For those of you who have put your Muppet days behind you, Sam the Eagle is a tall, frowny, greyish blue bird who regularly condemns his fellow Muppets for frivolity and actions unbecoming of patriotic Americans. Thanks to his crankiness, he is regularly assigned roles such as:
- The producer charged with ensuring his fellow actors adhere to their home network’s broadcast standards and practices on the TV series The Muppets
- A CIA agent tasked with solving a string of burglaries in Muppets Most Wanted
- A formal and deeply disapproving evening news anchor at WGF news in The Muppets
- Captain America in the occasional Marvel parody poster
Because Sam the Eagle is so routinely portrayed as the most patriotic and unyielding of all the Muppets, I had simply taken his word for it that he was a bald eagle, with some creative license attached in the form of a George C Scott parody.
A quick refresher on George C. Scott (1927-1999) for my younger readers:
An American actor, director, and producer, George C. Scott won, but refused to accept, not one, but two Oscars during his career. The first was for his role as Bert in The Hustler in 1962, and the second for his portrayal of General George S. Patton in the 1970 film, Patton. In explaining his rationale for turning down the awards, Scott reportedly said that he didn’t like feeling that he was competing with other actors. Furthermore, the Oscars were a “demeaning” “two-hour meat parade” and he didn’t want any part of them.
A man who feels that his fellow actors spend too much time in pursuit of things that are frivolous and beneath his dignity? Yep. I totally see the resemblance.
And so I wandered through life, filled with the happy conviction that I knew everything I needed to know about Sam the Eagle.
Exit, pursued by a stork
This happy state continued until last summer, when I saw this guy on Twitter.
My immediate reaction was, as you might expect, terror. It got worse when I did a little Googling and realized that:
- this bird really exists — it’s an African shoebill stork
- it’s almost as tall as my 13-year-old
That concern only grew as I learned more about the African shoebill stork and its predilection for dining on baby crocodiles.
This bird is not to be trifled with.
“That bird looks like a Muppet,” my husband remarked, unfazed.
Now that you mention it…
Seeing the shoebill made me question everything I thought I knew about Sam the Eagle. While researching the possibility of Sam Eagle being based on something other than a bald eagle, I came across this article from How Stuff Works that posits that Sam the Eagle was actually modeled after the harpy eagle: “The Harpy Eagle: Terrifying Apex Predator or Creepy Halloween Costume?”
Their argument, while entertaining, essentially boils down to the fact that the harpy eagle is the largest, most judgmental looking eagle on the planet, who, by the way, might also be interested in eating your toddler.
Now, I have no evidence to suggest that Sam the Eagle would ever eat a toddler, but he’s definitely both very large and exceptionally judgmental. Naturally, I’m now questioning everything I thought I knew about Sam the Eagle. There’s only one thing I can possibly do to resolve this: compare and contrast.
Sam the Eagle: bald eagle, harpy eagle, or shoebill stork?
Let’s examine the evidence.
Scientific names
As you know, one of the first things I like to do when deciding whether or not two things are related is to look at their scientific names. Sadly, while it was trivial to find the scientific names for the bald eagle (Haliaeetus leucocephalus), the harpy eagle (Harpia harpyja), and the shoebill stork (Balaeniceps rex), Sam the Eagle doesn’t seem to have ever been given one.
Verdict: No help.
Height
Fortunately, it was much easier to find heights for everyone.
American Bald Eagle: Up to 3 feet 2 inches
Harpy Eagle: Up to 3 feet 5 inches
Shoebill Stork: Up to 5 feet
Sam the Eagle: Just over 5 foot 6 inches.
Verdict: Height-wise, Sam the Eagle is most like the shoebill stork.
Coloring
American Bald Eagle: White and brown
Harpy Eagle: Grey, black, and white
Shoebill Stork: Greyish blue
Sam the Eagle: Blue
Verdict: Again, Sam the Eagle is most like the shoebill stork.
Beak shape
American Bald Eagle: Thick, yellow, and pointy.
Harpy Eagle: Skinny (relative to the harpy’s face), black, and sharp
Shoebill Stork: Thick, beige, often described as being shaped like a Dutch clog, hence the name shoebill.
Sam the Eagle: Thick, blue, and pointy
Verdict: If you ignore the color and focus on its shape relative to his face, Sam the Eagle’s beak looks most like a bald eagle’s.
Diet
American Bald Eagle: Fish, mammals, gulls, and waterfowl. Will steal food from other birds, scavenge, or eat garbage.
Shoebill Stork: Fish including lungfish, tilapia, and catfish; frogs; and reptiles like snakes, monitor lizards, and baby crocodiles
Sam the Eagle: I remember Sam the Eagle singing about how tasty chicken hawks were once, but I don’t actually remember him eating anything. Neither was I able to find anything in his Wiki about food. However, in January 2020, Walt Disney World announced that it would open a Regal Eagle BBQ Smokehouse at Epcot, hosted by Sam the Eagle. Presumably they would know. Therefore, I conclude that BBQ is Sam the Eagle’s favorite food.
Verdict: The only bird on this list that sounds like it might have eaten BBQ at some point is the bald eagle, with its propensity for eating garbage. If some of that garbage was acquired at a former picnic site, it likely would have included BBQ. So I guess, most like the bald eagle in diet?
Family Structure
American Bald Eagle: Thought to be monogamous, although bald eagles have been known to take a new mate after their previous one dies. Have 1-3 nestling eaglets at a time, which remain with their parents for between 17-24 weeks while they learn to fly and, presumably, hunt for themselves. Generally, bald eagles reproduce once a year, although in southern regions may lay a replacement clutch of eggs if something happens to their first set during incubation.
Harpy Eagle: Mate for life and raise one chick every two to four years. When a new chick is born, it remains in the nest for 6 months. The parents will continue feeding that chick for up to 10 months after it leaves the nest.
Shoebill Stork: According to The Freaky and Formidable Shoebill Stork is One Strange Bird article on How Stuff Works, shoebill storks are monogamous and work together to build their floating barge-like nests and raise their young. Although the female will lay up to three eggs per clutch, only the eldest survives. The first shoebill in the clutch to hatch eats the others.
Sam the Eagle: According to the Family Life section on the Sam the Eagle Wiki, Sam the Eagle has an ex-wife named Eunice and two kids who were in college as of 2011. Neither child is currently speaking to him, perhaps due to the deeply disapproving lecture he undoubtedly gave them when he learned that his son planned to become a taxidermist and that his daughter was dating an owl.
In Summary: As far as the number of young goes, Sam the Eagle is most like the bald eagle. His desire to have an ongoing involvement in his kids’ lives after they leave the nest sounds like the harpy eagle. The shoebill stork’s home life is just horrifying and I am not going to make any attempt to link Sam the Eagle to it.
Verdict: Inconclusive, although I do question whether the son’s interest in taxidermy might indicate a latent bald eagle-like interest in carrion.
Legs and feet
American Bald Eagle: Bright yellow legs and feet, with thick brown feathers on their thighs.
Harpy Eagle: Powerful yellow legs and feet, with black and white feathers on the thighs.
Shoebill Stork: Spindly, skinny long legs. Known to poop on their upper thighs in an effort to keep them cool.
Sam the Eagle: Thick yellow feet, with blue feathers on the thighs.
Verdict: Sam the Eagle’s feet are much more like an eagle’s feet than a stork’s. Which eagle is less clear. This portrait of Sam the Eagle dressed as Sam Arrow in Muppet Treasure Island makes me think that proportionately, Sam the Eagle’s feet are sized more like the harpy eagle than the bald eagle.
So is Sam the Eagle a bald eagle, a harpy eagle, or a shoebill stork?
I’m going with yes. He seems to have at least a few things in common with all three, although I have no doubt he would find their behavior in the wild to be completely appalling.
Related Links:
- George C. Scott Obituary (BBC)
- Sam the Eagle: Through the Years (Muppet Wiki)
- Sam the Eagle (Muppet Wiki)
- The Freaky and Formidable Shoebill Stork is One Strange Bird (How Stuff Works)
- The Harpy Eagle: Terrifying Apex Predator or Creepy Halloween Costume (How Stuff Works)
- Largest eagles in the world are so big their talons are bigger than bear claws (My Modern Met)
- Harpy Eagle (American Bird Conservancy)
- National Eagle Center FAQ
- Bald Eagle Identification (All About Birds, The Cornell Lab)
- The American Eagle Foundation
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3 Responses to “Sam the Eagle: Bald Eagle, Harpy Eagle, or Shoebill Stork?”
(Gasps, beak wide open), “ How DARE, you to even THINK, of questioning, my , American , patriotic, RESPONSIBILITY, as-a-bald, eagle! YOU, are , an, un-American, freakish WEIRDO, and you should be ashamed, for doubting, my superior status, as THE , most American, bird! I am , reporting, this blog, to the government, for uncensored MOCKERY, of my country, and, myself! Good day!”
Sorry, but I had to let Sam reply to that, he would be so shocked someone thought he was anything but the “ most American “ of birds! 🤣😂😆
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HA! Thanks for the laugh.
Just this week, I saw a photo of a very Sam-Eagle-like Stellar’s Sea Eagle that had washed up on the shores of Maine: https://www.npr.org/2022/01/14/1072706921/one-of-the-rarest-eagles-in-the-world-has-birdwatchers-flocking-to-maine. Gave serious consideration to updating this post to compare it to my very favorite True Blue Eagle Patriot.
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