Learn Spanish (Spain): Las águilas cazan animales pequeños en las montañas. - Eagles hunt small animals in the mountains.

Águila is actually a feminine noun! But because it starts with a stressed 'a' sound, saying la águila would sound like one long 'a'. To avoid this, Spanish uses the masculine article el in the singular (el águila). However, in the plural, the 's' in las breaks up the vowels, so it goes back to its normal feminine article: las águilas.

Why does 'águilas' have an accent mark?

The word águilas has its stress on the third-to-last syllable (á-gui-las). In Spanish, any word stressed on the third-to-last syllable must always have a written accent mark to show that the stress breaks the standard pronunciation rules.

Should there be a 'personal a' before 'animales pequeños' since they are being hunted?

No, the 'personal a' is generally only used for specific people or beloved pets. Since animales pequeños refers to unspecified, wild animals in general, no 'personal a' is needed after the verb cazan.