Birds and Birding's Guide to:

Watching THE FALCON-LIKE BIRDS

THE KITES, BUZZARDS, EAGLES, HAWKS, AND ALLIES

Golden Eagle

We may appropriately begin the consideration of this group with the Golden Eagle (Aquila chrysaetus), which is found in North America as far south as Mexico, and also in various parts of Europe and northern Asia, whence it ranges to northern Africa and China.

The male is from thirty to thirty-five inches in length and has an extent of wings of between six and one-half and seven feet, while the female is four or five inches longer and has a spread of wings of between seven and seven and one-half feet. In color the Golden Eagle is a nearly uniform dark brown, with the lanceolate feathers of the hind-neck and the feathers of the tarsus of a paler or more tawny hue, while the tail and quills are black, the former being more or less clouded or irregularly banded with grayish. The young are much paler or even whitish, especially on the under parts and the tail.

From time immemorial this Eagle has been taken as the emblem of all that is noble and courageous, but as so many of our cherished ideals have been shattered in the cold light of truth, so must our estimate in this instance give way before undeniable facts. On this point Major Bendire says: “

Notwithstanding the many sensational stories of the fierceness and prowess of the Golden Eagle, especially in defense of its eyrie, from my own observations I must confess, if not an arrant coward, it certainly is the most indifferent bird, in respect to the care of its eggs and young, I have ever seen.”In spite of this, as Bendire continues, it”is a clean, trim-looking, handsome bird, keen-sighted, rather shy and wary at all times, even in thinly settled parts of the country, swift of flight, strong and powerful in body, and more than a match for any animal of similar size.”Never very abundant, it has now probably disappeared almost entirely as a nesting species east of the Mississippi River, although an occasional pair may linger in the more mountainous portions of the Adirondacks of New York, the New England States, etc. Beyond the Mississippi it is quite generally distributed, becoming fairly common in the interior Rocky Mountain region.

The story is the same on the other side of the Atlantic, for while it once bred in England and Wales, it has gradually retreated farther and farther north, and is now restricted during the nesting season to the Highlands and western islands of Scotland. In other portions of Europe and Asia it is still fairly common. The nesting site is usually selected in some wild and inaccessible place, as a rocky ledge, a perpendicular bluff on the bank of a stream, or, these failing, a large tree.

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