Officials in Maine are hunting for the unpatriotic sicko who shot a bald eagle at close range, and then stuffed it into a bucket and left it on the side of the road, cops say.

“We need to find out who did it,” Maine Game Warden Alan Curtis told USA Today. “The way [the eagle was disposed of] was certainly wrong.”

X-rays reveal the bird, found on Memorial Day, was pumped with dozens of pellets, indicating it was shot at close range with “malicious intent,” Curtis said.

Even more disturbing is there is no chance the hunter took the eagle for some other feathered flyer — at the range it was shot, a bald eagle’s 10-foot wingspan is “unmistakable,” he noted.

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is offering a reward of up to $2,500 and Maine Operation Game Thief is also offering an additional $1,000 for information leading to a conviction.

Bald eagles, while no longer considered an endangered species, remain protected by the US government, and killing or taking one is a federal crime. Under the Bald and Golden Eagle Protection Act, a first time offender faces a maximum fine of $5,000 or one year in prison.

Felony convictions carry up to a $250,000 fine, along with two years in prison.

This is the second American bald eagle to be found shot dead in the past month. The other bird was discovered in Colorado on May 10. A necropsy determined that eagle was shot in its lower abdomen and likely suffered for more than a day before it died.

With Wires