Golden Eagle (Aquila chrysaetos): Facts, Size and Habitat

What does a golden eagle look like?

Adults of both sexes look alike. The body and wings are dark brown, the flight feathers and tail show some gray barring, and the back of the crown and neck is covered in pointed golden-buff to rusty feathers. This golden “shawl” gives the bird its name. The legs are feathered right down to the yellow toes, a feature of the “booted eagle” group, and the hooked bill is dark at the tip with a yellow cere, the bare skin at its base.

Young birds are darker and often show bold white patches. A first-year golden eagle typically has a white tail with a broad black tip and white “windows” at the base of the flight feathers. The white shrinks with each molt, and full adult plumage is only reached at about five to six years old.

In flight, a golden eagle looks long-winged and long-tailed, and it often soars with its wings raised in a shallow V, called a dihedral. Unlike many birds of prey, it is surprisingly quiet. Its calls are weak, high yelps and chirps, heard mostly around the nest.

How big is a golden eagle?

The golden eagle is one of the largest birds of prey in the Northern Hemisphere. Females are noticeably bigger than males, and size varies between the six recognized subspecies, with the Himalayan birds largest and the Japanese birds smallest.

The heaviest wild golden eagle on record was a female caught and released in Wyoming’s Bridger-Teton National Forest in 2006, which weighed 7.7 kg (17 lb). Heavier figures come from captive birds bred for falconry and are not typical of wild eagles.

Its long, curved hind claw is the main killing tool. The eagle grips prey with all four toes and drives in the talons, rather than biting.

Habitat and range

The golden eagle lives across the Holarctic, the northern parts of the Old and New Worlds. In North America it breeds from Alaska and northern Canada through the western United States into central Mexico. In Eurasia it ranges from Scotland, Scandinavia, Spain and the Alps across Russia, Central Asia and the Himalayas to Japan and Korea. In Africa it nests in the Atlas Mountains of Morocco, Algeria and Tunisia, with a small isolated group in Ethiopia’s Bale Mountains.

What all its habitats share is open ground for hunting and cliffs or large trees for nesting. Typical places are mountain slopes above or near the tree line, moorland, sagebrush steppe, prairie, semi-desert and the edges of tundra and taiga. It generally avoids dense forest, farmland and built-up areas. In the Himalayas golden eagles regularly live above 2,500 m (8,200 ft), and one was seen circling at about 6,190 m (20,310 ft) near Everest.

Most adults stay on or near their territory all year. Birds nesting in the far north, above about 60 degrees latitude, migrate south for the winter, and several thousand pass along the Rocky Mountains in Alberta each autumn. More detail on where to find them is in Where do golden eagles live?.

What do golden eagles eat?

Golden eagles are carnivores that feed mostly on medium-sized mammals: hares, jackrabbits, rabbits, ground squirrels, prairie dogs and marmots. Gamebirds such as grouse and partridges are the next most important prey, followed by other birds, reptiles and the occasional fish. In winter, carrion such as dead deer and sheep becomes a major food source, especially in Scotland and Scandinavia.

An adult needs roughly 230–250 g (8–9 oz) of food a day, but eagles live with cycles of feast and famine. They can go several days without eating and then take up to about 900 g (2 lb) at one meal. In a study in Idaho, only about one in five hunting attempts succeeded.

Hunting styles include high soaring followed by a steep dive, fast low flights that follow the contours of the land to surprise prey, and tail chases after running hares. Pairs sometimes hunt together. Golden eagles occasionally attack much larger animals, such as deer fawns, chamois kids, foxes and even young pronghorn, which they eat on the ground. Read the full picture in What do golden eagles eat?.

Flight and speed

Golden eagles are among the most skilled fliers of all eagles. They save energy by riding rising warm air (thermals) and the updrafts along ridges, and they flap far less than smaller birds. A relaxed soaring speed is about 45–52 km/h (28–32 mph), while fast hunting glides can exceed 100 km/h (62 mph).

In a steep hunting dive, called a stoop, the eagle folds its wings close to the body. Its diving speed is often quoted at 240–320 km/h (150–200 mph). Those figures are estimates rather than careful measurements, but they suggest the golden eagle is one of the fastest diving birds after the peregrine falcon. The numbers are explained in How fast can an eagle fly?.

Behavior and territories

Outside the breeding pair, golden eagles are solitary. A pair defends a home range that is usually 20–200 km² (8–77 sq mi), one of the largest of any bird, though territories can be far smaller where prey is very plentiful. Pairs mark their boundaries with “sky dances”: switchback flights of steep climbs and dives that warn off neighbors without a fight. Real fights, in which two eagles lock talons and tumble through the air, are rare but can be fatal.

Golden eagles spend most of the day perched on a lookout, scanning the ground. In parts of Idaho and Utah, adults were observed sitting still for most of the daylight hours and hunting mainly in the morning and late afternoon. In very cold weather they sometimes tolerate one another; on one bitter night in Idaho, more than a hundred were seen roosting along a line of power poles.

Reproduction and life cycle

Golden eagles usually pair for life. In late winter, partners perform display flights together, sometimes dropping and catching sticks or clods of earth in mid-air. Each pair owns several nests, called eyries, built of sticks on cliff ledges or in large trees and lined with fresh greenery. They use them in turn for many years, adding material each time, so an old eyrie can become very large.

The female lays one to four eggs, most often two, a few days apart. Incubation takes about six weeks, done mainly by the female while the male brings food. Because the first chick hatches earlier, it is bigger, and in many nests it attacks its younger sibling, which often dies. Biologists call this siblicide; it means most successful nests raise only one young eagle.

The chicks fledge at about 10–11 weeks old (66–81 days, depending on the region) and become independent in autumn. Young eagles then wander widely for several years. They usually settle on a territory and start breeding at four to seven years old.

Lifespan

Young golden eagles face a hard start. In parts of the Rocky Mountains, about half of the eagles ringed as nestlings had died within two and a half years, mainly from starvation, accidents and human causes. Adults that hold a territory survive much better, often living 20 years or more. The oldest known wild golden eagle was ringed in Sweden and recovered 32 years later, the North American record is 31 years and 8 months, and a captive bird in Europe lived to 46.

Predators and threats

Adult golden eagles have almost no natural predators. Eggs and chicks may be taken by other eagles, ravens or mammals such as wolverines and bears, and most deaths among adults in the wild come from fights with other golden eagles, starvation or accidents.

Human-related threats are far more important:

• Illegal killing. Shooting and poisoned bait, often linked to fears over livestock or gamebirds, still kill eagles in parts of Europe and North America.
• Lead poisoning. Eagles that feed on carcasses or gut piles can swallow fragments of lead ammunition.
• Energy infrastructure. Collisions with wind turbines and electrocution on poorly designed power poles kill many eagles each year in the western US and Spain.
• Vehicles. Eagles feeding on roadkill are often struck by traffic.
• Habitat loss. Farmland, forestry plantations and development reduce the open hunting ground they need.

Conservation status

The IUCN Red List classifies the golden eagle as Least Concern, last assessed in 2021, with a stable overall population. Its global numbers are roughly estimated at 170,000–250,000 birds, and the western United States alone holds an estimated 40,000 or so.

Locally, the picture is mixed. The species has vanished as a breeder from the eastern United States, most of lowland Europe and England, where the last resident bird disappeared in 2015. In Scotland, a 2015 national survey counted 508 pairs, up 15 percent since 2003, and young eagles have been moved to the south of Scotland since 2018 to rebuild a tiny population there. A reintroduction in Glenveagh National Park, Ireland, began in 2001. In the US, the golden eagle is protected by the Bald and Golden Eagle Protection Act, and in the EU by the Birds Directive. Learn about Scotland’s eagles in our guide to the wildlife of Scotland.

Golden eagles and people

Few birds have such a long history with people. The eagle standard, the aquila, of Roman legions was modeled on it, and a golden eagle perched on a cactus eating a snake is the emblem on Mexico’s flag. In Central Asia, Kazakh and Kyrgyz falconers have flown golden eagles for centuries, a tradition still celebrated at festivals in western Mongolia. Many Native American peoples regard its feathers as sacred.

A common belief is that golden eagles regularly kill lambs. They do occasionally take young lambs, but studies of nest remains in Scotland found that much of the lamb was picked up as carrion. Wild prey makes up the vast majority of the diet, and the overall effect on livestock farming is small.

If you want to tell a golden eagle from America’s other big eagle, see bald eagle vs golden eagle.