How to get Tallbird Eggs without getting shredded to pieces?

I've been having LOTS of trouble trying to get tallbird eggs. Everytime I even go NEAR a tallbird nest, the monsters peck me to death! If anyone has a strategy, then please tell me.

Solution 1:

Tallbirds are a right pain to deal with, but you can indeed kill them and steal their eggs, even if there's a pack of them. The most important thing you need to know: a Tallbird that's been hit will chase you longer than a Tallbird whose friend has been hit.

The first strategy is violently straightforward:

1. Hit a Tallbird in the face.
2. Run away, until only the Tallbird you hit is chasing you.
3. Kite that Tallbird until it's dead. (Hit it, run away a short distance to avoid its retaliation, repeat.)

Note that the second time you attack the Tallbird, its friends might still be close enough to chase you again. If that happens, again run away until only the Tallbird you hit is chasing you — this should leave the friends even further away.

This is harder than it looks, because Tallbirds will retreat to their nests after a certain distance in addition to retreating after they've been chasing you for a certain amount of time. So you'll hit a Tallbird, run briefly away, find that you're no longer being chased, run after the Tallbird, hit it, and then realize that you ran too far and you're now surrounded by Tallbirds and you might even have lost track of which one you injured earlier. No matter: just keep following the strategy above, and eventually you'll have a passel of dead Tallbirds. It gets easier the more you kill. (Also: wear armor. Tallbirds hit like a freight train. Repair your armor and your health as necessary.)

The second strategy requires a bit more resources: Violence at night.

1. Get a Miner Hat, and fill it with Fireflies.
2. Wait until night, and then wear the Miner Hat.
3. Beat your least-favorite Tallbird repeatedly with a weapon until it wakes up.
4. Run far away, until the Tallbird returns to its nest and goes back to sleep, then hit it again.

The third strategy is just plain larceny.

During the day, Tallbirds aimlessly wander around the nesting grounds. Wait for your chance (when there are no Tallbirds next to your target egg), and then dash in and take the egg you want. Note that Tallbirds will chase after an egg far longer than they'll chase after someone who attacked them. If you have an egg, you should be prepared to either run for a long time, or be ready to kill the single Tallbird once it's far away from its friends.

You can kill a single Tallbird with a set of Log Armor and a Spear pretty easily, once you've gotten the timing down. All enemies in Don't Starve attack once every X seconds. (The timing is different for each type of creature.) So the trick is to run into range, see the enemy start to attack, and then run away before the attack finishes – then you'll avoid damage, and can run in to get a hit or two before the enemy attacks again.

The fourth strategy is to realize that you'd rather take up farming than go mano-a-mano with Tallbirds.

Solution 2:

This is a bit opinion based. But generally I would first advise against bothering with their eggs until you've got some gear established and maybe a spear. They aren't anything extraordinary to risk your life over, there are plenty of other food sources around.

If you eventually want to, the best strategy is nabbing a few eggs and then running off. You're likely to have a couple chase you, if you're running they will never catch you to actually land a hit. At this point once you've isolated a couple of them you can kite them.

Here is a clip of someone doing such a tactic.