In the final battle why didnt eragon take the energy from the birds that were flying over head waiting for the dead bodies, and after he killed one of the magic users why did he not absorb the energy from the soldiers that are no longer protected?

seems like a good idea.

Well he is against killing the animals as a result from his training.

What are the lives a few animals to the lives of thousands of humans?

Well depending on who your talking to, its a bigg deal. But he WAS absorbibg the energy, but they said it was getting harder and harder to find the magicians, so they hadnt found one in a while. and the whole bird thing was a god idea, but he wouldnt do that unless he was lke, heart beating 4times a minute and its possibblly that last act he'll ever do kinda thing. he would only use that as a last resort.

thats what im saying, it was a last resort when he was fighting murtagh. before flew off to fight the rider (murtagh) eragon took the life of a dying horse but he said that it didnt replenish his strength and he was still tired. he should have just taken the energy from the birds.

yeha well the horse was dying anyway. the birds were perfectlly healthy. and it did restore some of his strength, but he had been fighting from sun up to mid afternoon without stopping. and he had wards that were constantlly taking his strength...

Though absorbing energy from the enemy troops would be funny.

yeah but thats what the magicians do. protect the sodiers from that happening...
sothey have to find the magicians first.

by that time the magicians would have been dead.

no there were still some left or the troops would have given up or retreated or something...
i bet they would know if all the magicians on the other side were dead...

magic is affected by distance. maybe trying to take birds energy would have taken more energy than it was worth.

But to absorb energy from other beings you have to open up your mind, which would also make him vulnerable to enemy attacks.

The Du Vrangr Gata aimed for magicians first remember?

Yes, but remember how Eragon has to focus in order to drain energy from other people, and besides, I doubt anyone would let him take enrgy from anything. Because I doubt Eragon could drain energy and fight at the same time. Remember when he had to focus so he could only take energy from the things he wanted, he couldn't exactly fight while he was doing that, or atleast yet anyways.