Contrary to the life of mostly scavenging that we see from Bald Eagles, Golden Eagles are killing machines. When they're eating jackrabbits or ground squirrels we generally have no problems with them, but when they turn to pheasants or lambs, it can be a problem. No question, though, they are an impressive bird. I've had occasion to work on them in Alaska and Idaho.

Tree nest in a ponderosa pine in Idaho.



Cliff nest in southern Idaho (Birds of Prey Natural Area).



Rock clifff nest in Arctic Alaska (Wulik River).



Again, rock nest in Alaska.



Cliff nest in Idaho.



Adult golden eagle in Idaho.



Two young eagles in cliff nest. Note prey items (jackrabbits, cottontails, and pheasants).



Two adults fighting over a deer carcass.

Golden's are absolutely stunning birds.

The Natives would also call them war eagles or calumet eagles. The most prized feathers for headdresses were from 1 year old birds, mostly white with the near black tips.

Great pics, thanks for sharing!

The natives way of hiding in a pit covered and with bait close by edge of hole a and when eagle landed to bait eagle was grabbed by the legs. This was to harvest feathers

The hole they dug on edges and tops of cliffs are still intact today. I know where there are a few and the history of them catching them by the feet and taking feathers and letting them is incredible.

I watch a nest each year from a canyon away and get some great pictures of the chicklets.

Thanks for sharing your photos of the Day.

We had a couple of Golden's here the last week fighting the Balds over a dead coon. The Golden's would not stay for a photo shoot! See them all the time and yes they will kill!

Great shots, Jack. I think, for me, Goldens are much more interesting in illustrating than Baldies. The gold metallics in places just sparkle. If I had one done I would post it, but so far, I don't.

Many thanks for your signed copy of the latest book. Stories of Russia have always fascinated me. I'm enjoying my Jack collection !

In your time in Asia, did you ever have the chance to meet any eagle hunters? Mongol or otherwise?

very cool . . thanks for sharing!

k snow - In both Far Eastern Russia and in Mongolia, I never got to see the horseback falconers. I've seen videos of the Mongolians actually hunting wolves with their golden eagles. It's an impressive sight; would love to watch in person.

Jack.

You and I both would love to see it in person. I've watched the videos also of fox and wolf hunting, absolutely impressive.

And their fur hats are way cool too.

They can be hard on some big game species as well, several documented cases of them killing whole year classes of bighorn sheep lambs, even fairly large ones. They learned to just fly in and pull them off the cliff face and let them drop.
Have talked to big game biologists who have watched them kill full grown antelope, birds would land on the back and just sink the talons in as far as they could. Goats would take off running but can’t outrun an eagle. After repeated attacks they eventually bleed out and die.

Tray - From what I've seen in my back yard, they're very hard on the pronghorns. Recruitment has been nil for some years now. In Alaska, the goldens nesting in Denali Park and throughout the central Alaska Range are hard on the Dall Sheep lambs. Here's a photo of a dead lamb knocked off the cliff by a golden.

When we run sheep the Pyrenees dogs just hated them flying around the place. When trapping coyotes or bobcats if a eagle or two saw them in a trap they would be torn up, sometimes just fur left.

I run deer stops on all my coyote snares. Therefore, red foxes rarely choke themselves down. A red fox in a snare, virtually always alive, gets ripped up quite often by golden eagles. Usually it's got a thousand punctures about the thorax and shoulders.

Jack

They are impressive, much larger than a bald eagle. I seldom see them though unless there is a carcass nearby for them to scavenge, though.

I was elk hunting one fall in CO sitting next to a scree slide and I heard hoofs on rock, saw a golden eagle hovering about 75 yards across the mountain side and diving down. The scuffle ended up coming past me about 30 yards down, a golden trying to get an elk calf, elk calf ran into heavier tree cover below me and eagle following above it. It was a small calf and during the drought years so a very hungry eagle, never saw mom, killed a 5X5 bull same place an hour later.

I think I saw a Steller’s Sea Eagle on Rotook Island. I walked out of the weather port in the morning and it was just going past. I saw it for one maybe two seconds and it was around a cliff out of sight. I can not say for sure that is what it was, but it wasn't like any eagle I ever saw. I saw a light cream colored eagle on Chirikof Island half a dozen times anyway. The three other guys on the island saw it too. I think it was a bald eagle that was off color. I saw it flying with a bald eagle one time. It was common for the fox to be ate by eagles on the islands when in traps. There are lots of eagles on those islands.

Friend in Calgary would go to the Kananaskis foothill region west of town and count migrating eagles along the Rocky Mtns
spring and early fall some of the numbers were more than double digits even getting near 100
took a special neck crank to pick up a bird and follow it to see the wing window for an ID of bald-vs-golden
not an easy task when 8-10 birds take the same thermal and cross fly soaring going up, gain 3000 ft and zoom to the next peak 8 miles away to get that thermal in about 4 minutes
he rattled many of the locals about the migration till they saw the light.
(the same spot observations gains many insights= vs the twitchers that room about to check off a bird and go)

They do like fox,
Only 2 snared this year. Eagles 2 Sage 0.