Bald eagle plays ball on UBC Thunderbird field

The UBC Thunderbirds might have a new mascot.

Mitchell Barnett was walking past the Thunderbirds playing field on Thursday afternoonwhen he saw a juvenile bald eagleswoop down to the field.

"How do I rate its soccer skills? Definitely better than me," he said. "To me, it seemed like it was trying to pick up the ball."

The bird made a few attempts to fly off with the ball, but eventually flew to a nearby tree.

Ildiko Szabo, an assistant curator atUBC Beaty Biodiversity Museum, says she's seen behaviour like this before.

"Birds have been known to do crazy things like this," she said. "I don't know why it would go after a ball. It certainly doesn't look like food to me."

Last March, an eagle was filmed kicking around asoccer ball at a North Vancouver soccer practice.