Rise Like the Eagle

“Crows will caw, but the eagle still soars.”

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You’ve probably heard the old saying that the crow is the only bird that dares attack an eagle. That’s a nice story, but it isn’t quite true. The real story, though, is even better.

In nature, crows — and sometimes gulls, ravens, even smaller hawks — will gang up on an eagle. Biologists call it mobbing behavior. Picture it: a chorus of crows swooping, cawing, pecking at the back of a bird ten times their size. It looks chaotic, noisy, and a little ridiculous.

And how does the eagle respond? By doing the most eagle-like thing you can imagine: it doesn’t flinch, it doesn’t throw punches with its talons — it simply climbs higher. Wingbeat after wingbeat, the eagle rises into the thinner air. The crows can’t keep up for long, and one by one they drop away. The mob loses steam, and the eagle keeps soaring.

That image sticks with me because it’s so human. We’ve all seen mobbing behavior in people. Sometimes it’s neighbors gossiping, sometimes it’s coworkers piling on with criticism, sometimes it’s the internet in full swarm mode. The noise can be deafening, and it can feel like everyone’s pecking at you.

But the lesson from the eagle is clear: you don’t have to fight every crow. You don’t have to answer every criticism, or win every argument. Instead, you rise higher. You focus on your vision, your altitude, your goals. Eventually the noise falls away, and you’re left soaring where only you can go.

Nature’s parable is better than the myth. The eagle does get mobbed. But it wins not by fighting — it wins by knowing the sky belongs to it.

So when the crows come for you, don’t waste your wings on them—use them to rise above them.