I forgot what a pain in the butt it was to get the eagle to spawn, and to drop a feather when he finally does spawn.

I got spoiled on the first run: when I first came down the mountain, the very first time I entered that screen, the eagle spawned AND dropped a feather.

Here on the second run, it's been over 15 minutes of running back and forth onto both screens where he can spawn, and though he has spawned 4 times, no feather yet...

-EDIT-

Phew. Finally. I watched two and a half episodes of Sunny while trying to get the feather, so it took just under an hour. That's pretty ridiculous.

Random encounters in old Sierra games are often determined at the moment when you enter the screen. Eagle uses this same mechanic. It speeds up the things if you leave the screen and come back till the eagle drops the feather. Walking back and forth may sound silly, but it actually works. It shouldn't take more than minute or two to get the desired outcome.

Yeah, I was running back and forth between the screens. Every 10 minutes or so I would switch from the bottom of the mountain to the waterfall screen, since he can spawn on either of those screens.

It most definitely shouldn't take more than a minute or two, but took nearly an hour on that run ;)

It's completely random as far as I know. It's also one of the first things I usually do.

I almost always go for it at the bottom of the mountain path, as that's the quickest way to reach it.

If I don't get it first few times, I reload or start a new game, as I've found that seems to help... But since its random its probably just luck, as opposed to actually doing anything.

Seriously most of the time it drops the first time I go down the mountain, whenever I played it from a new game. Again its probably pure random luck...

I think it's more than random luck. Every time I reached the bottom of the mountain for the 1st time, the eagle has flown by & allowed me to get the feather. Dunno if it's supposed to be that way, but it's always been consistant for me

That's what happened on my first run; the first time I was on that screen, he appeared and dropped the feather. That second run was just insanely bad luck. It was like Rosencrantz and Guildenstern flipping coins: 50/50, but it's always heads.