Cattleman Kills Mountain Lion In Ray County

[Wayne SW/MO]

...the jury is still out on spiders and humans,

Now Spiders aren't that bad!

[flytyer57]

I'm confused Al, why would someone mistake an immature Bald for a bigger Golden? The few Goldens I've seen were all obviously larger. I saw a mature Bald and a Golden come off of a gut pile one time and with that close comparison there was no doubt what the bigger bird was, even without the color comparison.

The bald eagle does not have the white head and tail feathers until they reach a few years old.

[Wayne SW/MO]

The bald eagle does not have the white head and tail feathers until they reach a few years old.

And that makes them bigger?

[jdmidwest]

And that makes them bigger?

Are all golden eagles full size at birth? Maybe he meant a young golden eagle may be mistaken for a young bald eagle of the same size.

[flytyer57]

Like I said, a bald eagle does not get it's white head and tail feathers until they are a couple years old.

The best way to discern a bald from a golden is that the bald eagle's legs are bald and the golden eagle has feathers on it's legs.

[Al Agnew]

I'm confused Al, why would someone mistake an immature Bald for a bigger Golden? The few Goldens I've seen were all obviously larger. I saw a mature Bald and a Golden come off of a gut pile one time and with that close comparison there was no doubt what the bigger bird was, even without the color comparison.

Wayne, according to every source I can find, they are both about the same size...

The Golden Field Guide to Birds of North America says length of golden eagles--32 inches. Length of bald eagles--32 inches. Wingspan of golden eagles--78 inches. Wingspan of bald eagles--80 inches.

Peterson Field Guide to Hawks goes into a lot more detail...it's generally considered one of the best and most accurate field guides. According to it, bald eagle length--27-35 inches. Golden eagle length--27-33 inches. Bald eagle wingspread--71-89 inches. Golden eagle wingspread--72-87 inches. Bald eagle weight--4.4-13.6 pounds. Golden eagle weight--6.6-14 pounds.

Like I said before, keep in mind that the size difference between males and females of both species is considerable. Males run quite a bit smaller than females. You could have seen a male bald and a female golden that time. And because immature balds can be as dark overall as any golden, and have longer tail feathers than adults and a heavier bill, they look bigger than adults.

Although there is a lot of variation in individual bald eagles, to some extent you can tell an immature's age by its coloration. Young of the year are mostly uniformly dark, with very dark wing feathers and a somewhat lighter back and shoulders, and very dark breast with slightly lighter belly. They have very little white anywhere, but sometimes there is some white streaking where belly meets breast. Their tails are longer than they are at any other age. Eyes are dark, beaks are dark.

Birds that are a year old have a slightly lighter horizontal line across their heads above their eyes, a dark spot behind the eyes, lots of white on their bellies and some white on their backs and wing feathers. Eyes lighten to amber, beak slaty gray.

Birds that are two years old have a whitish line above the eyes, whitish cheeks and throat, body colors similar to one year olds. Eyes yellow, beak horn-colored with dirty yellow splotches. At this time all the flight feathers have been replaced, and the new flight feathers and tail feathers are shorter than the ones on younger birds, so the tail looks shorter and wings look thinner.

Three year old birds vary a lot, but usually have whitish heads with a dark streak through the eyes, and lots of white all over their bodies and wings. Tail is usually whitish with a dark edge. Eyes are dull yellow, beak is dull yellow with darker splotches.

Four year old birds look much like adults, but may still have dark streaks in the white of their heads and a dark edge to their tails. Eyes and beak are bright yellow. By five years the birds have fully adult coloration.

[taxidermist]

Now Spiders aren't that bad!

No the jury is not out on spiders with me, I had my fill of spider bite a couple years ago.

[Wayne SW/MO]

Al I understand what you're saying about a comparison between mature and immature balds. I know that of the four Goldens I've seen and Identified, they were, in my mind, larger than the Balds I'm used to seeing. I know Goldens have a reputation for taking larger prey then Balds.

I doubt Goldens will ever expand to include Missouri, so it's probably all mute.

In my example at the gutpile, which was actually two elk very close together, there was an immature also, but it left alone and ahead of the other two so there was no way to realistically compare the three. We were less than fifty yards from them, so identifying them wasn't difficult.

[taxidermist]

If you want to see some Golden eagles that are close, well kind of. The River along the old part lower post of Ft Riley has several hundred eagles gathered right now and there are several golden eagles in the area. Along Beeman and Stuart Ave is where many of them will be roosting in the trees on the Ft Riley side.

[Justin Spencer]

Twice along the North Fork I have seen what I believe to be Golden Eagles. We have tons of Bald's, both mature and immature, and twice I have seen eagles that seemed bigger than immature bald's and with different coloration and can only assume (without being sure) that they were goldens. Hard to explain until you see one, but they are definatly different, and to me seemed bigger as well.