Livestock guardians as a general rule don't protect by fighting, but by convincing the predator that the risk is too high to bother. The guardian alerts and the

Livestock guardians as a general rule don't protect by fighting, but by convincing the predator that the risk is too high to bother. The guardian alerts and the flock reacts to the danger, seeking shelter, making noise, looking up, etc. Without an easy meal the predator moves on. Arial predators are especially risk-averse because it doesn't take much to cause a mortal injury. I've even heard of people using guardian geese instead of dogs. They're supposed to be very effective at preventing arial predation and orders of magnitude cheaper than dogs, though I've never heard anyone talk about them in the context of something the size of a bald eagle.