Outline
Circulating slide presentation claims that, at around 40 years of age, eagles go through a painful 5 month process of rebirth in which they remove and regrow their beak, talons and feathers thereby allowing them to live another 30 years.

Brief Analysis
The information in the message is false. Eagles do not undergo the process of rebirth described in the slide show.

Transcript of slide show:

This is the story of an eagle
The Eagle has the longest life-span of it's species
It can live up to 70 years
But to reach this age, the eagle must make a hard decision
In it's 40th year its long and flexible talons can no longer grab prey which serves as food
Its long and sharp beak becomes bent
It's old-aged and heavy wings, due to their thick feathers, stick to it's chest & make it difficult to fly
Then, the eagle is left with only two options: DIE or go through a painful process of CHANGE which lasts 150 days
The process requires that the eagle fly to a mountain top and sit on it's nest
There the eagle knocks it's beak against a rock until it plucks it out
Then the eagle will wait for a new beak to grow back and then it will pluck out it's talons
When it's new talons grow back, the eagle starts plucking it's old-aged feathers
And after 5 months, The eagle takes its famous flight of rebirth and lives for 30 more years
Why is change needed? Many times, in order to survive we have to start a change process. We sometimes need to get rid of old memories, habits and other past traditions. Only freed from past burdens, can we take advantage of the present.

Note that several slightly different versions of the slide presentation are circulating
Detailed Analysis
This rather fanciful tale, which circulates in the form of a slide presentation, claims that eagles can live for up to 70 years if they go through a prolonged and painful process of rebirth during their 40th year. According to the story, to be "reborn" at forty, the eagle must retreat to its nest on a mountain top, first knock off and then regrow its beak, then pluck out and regrow its talons and, finally, pluck out and regrow its feathers, a process that takes 150 days. Thus renewed, the eagle can take its "flight of rebirth" and go on to live another thirty years.

(c)iStockphoto.com/Andy Gehrig

Claims that eagles go through a long and painful process of "rebirth" in order to live another 30 years are pure nonsenseHowever, the information in the message is false. Eagles do not undergo the process of rebirth described in the slide show. In fact, the story is simply an allegory about change and does not reflect the real life cycle of eagles. Presumably, the creator of the slide show invented the eagle rebirth story as a means of illustrating his or her concepts regarding the role of change in our lives. Unfortunately, the author has presented the rebirth story as if it was factual and therefore many recipients tend to take it literally.

Of course a closer review soon reveals the absurdity of the tale. The story does not explain how the eagle could possibly survive without food or water for the five months of its transformation. Moreover, an eagle's talons and beak continue to grow throughout its life and therefore do not grow old and unusable as claimed in the story. And its feathers are also continually replaced. The American Bald Eagle Information website notes:

For those of you who have e-mailed me wondering if it's true that an eagle goes into seclusion, plucks out all of its feathers, sheds its beak and talons, and then renews itself, is a myth/legend. It's possible the eagle renewal myth/legend was derived from a biblical metaphor. I didn't deduce it is a myth/legend from the contents of a book. Both science and logic indicate an eagle can not survive for any length of time without his/her feathers, beak and talons. Exposure and starvation would overcome the eagle long before a physical renewal could occur. An eagle's beak and talons grow continuously, because they are made of keratin, the same substance as our hair and fingernails. Eagles molt in patches, taking almost half a year to replace feathers, starting with the head and working downward. Not all feathers are replaced in a given molt.

Bald eagles typically live between twenty and thirty years in the wild. The lifespan of other species of eagles may vary, although none are known to reach seventy years in the wild.

Although scientists have studied eagles of various species for generations and much has been published about them, no credible sources back up the "eagle rebirth" story in any way. There are, however, plenty of reliable sources that dismiss the story as a foolish hoax.

Rebirth stories, such as that of the mythical phoenix rising from the ashes of its funeral pyre, have been part of human cultures for thousands of years. The philosophical message behind the story - that we often need to undergo a painful and prolonged process of change in our lives in order to spiritually grow and move forward - is certainly worth heeding. However the nonsensical story used as a vehicle for the message all but destroys its credibility.

And there are other anomalies in the presentation. In some slides, the eagle shown in the photographs is a Bald Eagle, but in others a different species, the Golden Eagle, is shown. The story also sprouts the scientifically meaningless claim that "the eagle has the longest life-span of its species". The author perhaps meant to say that eagles live longer than all other kinds of birds, but this is also incorrect. Parrots and other species of birds are known to live longer than eagles.

民间有一种传说，说老鹰是世界上寿命最长的鸟类，它一生的年龄可达70岁。要活那么长的寿命，它在40岁时必须做出困难却重要的决定。当老鹰活到40岁时，它的爪子开始老化，无法有效地抓住猎物。它的喙变得又长又弯，几乎碰到胸膛，严重的阻碍它的进食。它的翅膀变得十分沉重，因为它的羽毛长得又浓又厚，使得飞翔十分吃力。它只有两种选择：等死，或经过一个十分痛苦的更新过程。它必须努力飞到一处陡峭的悬崖，任何鸟兽都上不去的地方，在那里要呆上150天左右。首先它要把弯如镰刀的喙向岩石摔去，直到老化的嘴巴连皮带肉从头上掉下来，然后静静地等候新的喙长出来。然后它以新喙当钳子，一个一个把趾甲从脚趾上拔下来。等新的趾甲长出来后，它把旧的羽毛都薅下来，5个月后新的羽毛长出来了，老鹰开始飞翔，得以再过30年的岁月。它冒着疼死、饿死的危险，自己改造自己，重塑自己，与自己的过去诀别，这一过程就是一个死而复生的过程。^[1]

但是根据考证，这个传说是毫无科学依据的。野生鹰的寿命约为20年，人工饲养的鹰的寿命可达48年，均无法达到传说中的70年。^[2]