Cattleman Kills Mountain Lion In Ray County

[Al Agnew]

Just keep in mind that goldens aren't usually bigger than balds and that immature balds can come in all kinds of color patterns. Also keep in mind that golden eagles don't hang around water all the time like bald eagles do. You may see a golden along a stream, but it's only there incidentally because goldens don't prey on fish. Since goldens are highly predatory, about the only thing that might really attract them to water is a concentration of waterfowl.

Most golden eagles seen east of the Great Plains are spotted away from water, and usually during migration at viewing points where migration patterns concentrate them. Goldens are especially rare except as wandering birds in the midwest...there is a small breeding population in the east in Maine and eastern Canada.

The best book I know of for IDing eagles and hawks in flight is "Hawks in Flight", by Dunne, Sibley, and Sutton. Some highlights of its discussion of telling golden from bald eagles in flight:

"Large white wing patches in conjunction with a gleaming white tail and the absence of white on other parts of the body are virtually irrefutable evidence of an immature golden eagle. An eagle with large amounts of white over the body, particularly on the underparts, may safely be called bald. A uniformly dark eagle lacks any trace of white (except a modest amount on the base of the tail) is an adult golden."

And if you're close enough to see the underwings VERY well..."But the location and distribution of white on the wings reliably differentiates the two immature eagles. Golden eagles have white on the base of the flight feathers that usually takes the shape of a large white patch, visible on the underside and the upper surface of the wing. The patches grow smaller as the bird moves toward adulthood and may, in advanced subadult plumage, become a narrow white line runnign along the edge of the wing lining. Note: the white is not on the wing lining. But a line of white should immediately suggest a bald eagle. Immature bald eagles have white underwing linings, adn the white very often takes the form of a line or bar running along the trailing edge of the wing coverts (note: on the wing coverts, not on the flight feathers)."

And finally, what I find to be by far the easiest way to tell them apart..."In poor light or at distances that make identification of a completely dark eagle uncertain (cases when an adult golden might also seem to be a very unmarked immature bald eagle), the relative length of the head and tail is the best indicator...birds with heads that are more than half the length of the tail can be called a bald eagle; birds with heads that are only one-third the length of the tail are goldens."