The Golden Eagle Sub-adult Winter Sighting

Jimmy and I usually spend a lot of time in January attempting to list 100 birds or more before the month is out.  Great winter birds, especially ducks, are hard to find later, as are some of the hawks that winter here, but are probably from more northerly locations during spring and summer. 

While in Sequatchie Co, TN coming in from the afternoon in Bledsoe, we stopped at Granny Ruth's Garden.  It's a favorite stop for birders, because of it's phenomenal view above the tree line over the valley.  We saw a large raptor approaching us from the SW, and it didn't take Jimmy long to insist I get away from the car so I could see it better as it approached. He said, "Grab the camera!"  I focused and was able to stay on it as it circled, and through the lens I confirmed..."It's a Golden!" 

We were watching a sub-adult Golden Eagle, and I was able to get a few ID shots before it got too distant. 

The classic eagle wing is a flat plane, wide about the same from near the body to the wing tips.  Eagles fly a large part of their flight with those wings laid out flat like a board.  If not hunting, or fighting wind, they are one of the "soaringest" raptors in the air.  They seldom flap unless they need lift quickly, or are changing direction and speed.  The rest of the time they lay upon the thermals, and glide.

At first look, it may appear that there is a white head and tail on this bird and without binocs or scope, it might often be misidentified as a Bald Eagle.  Unless one is Golden Eagle savvy, one might not know to even look for anything other than a Bald Eagle. 

The second bird, with which it is sometimes misidentified, is Vulture, due to the fingers on the outer wing. 

So what made us call this a Golden Eagle?  Well had it been an adult, the things that made this one easy might have required more scrutiny. But this bird has 3 obvious indicators. First the wide flat wings.  Secondly, the wide dark band at the tip of the tail, flanking a wide white tail band.  In an immature Golden, a younger bird would also have large white patches of feathers to the outside of mid center of the under-wing.  That triangle of white on a younger eagle is a dead give-away to it's ID.  But in this case, all we had was the tail feature.  Other raptors sport that, to differing degrees.  So if we didn't pick up on the fact that the wings were the board like flatness of an Eagle, or knowing it was an Eagle, we still thought it was a Bald, we need to look carefully at the size of that head in comparison to the wings and overall size of the bird.  The Golden's head is small! narrow, and short with a short looking bill. It looks way too small for the bird.  Watching the bird for a while, the golden sheen was soon visible to us. The sun was reflecting in such a way as to make it look like white gold.  But as it banked and turned the gold on the head and shoulders looked like it was guilded there.  When the sun's reflection didn't make it look so white, the smallness of the head was even more pronounced. 

If the bird had been an adult, the wings, golden sheen and small head would have been our only clues. Traces of the white feather patches were visible when it was close, but there appeared to be nothing but gold on the head in this case.  Thus this Golden was converting to Adulthood.

On at least one of my pictures, I captured the gold along the frontal edge of the wings, near the shoulders.  This area will be grey to black on a Red-tailed, for instance and can be diagnostic in some of them.  When it is so obvious on an eagle, it can also help in naming it as an Adult Golden.

 Sooooo little head visible here, but the golden patagials are! Patagials are the bars of color along the leading edge of the wing.

This bird is likely one of several banded, release birds, which has been frequenting the area, but we could not see the band in my pics.  Radio telemetry helps us know more about the places they go, and how they travel. If this bird was part of the release project, it carries a radio transmitter. Golden Eagles released into the Eastern flyway are members of a minority group, which may be the future for Eastern populations of Golden Eagles along this flyway. So few are present in the Eastern US, seeing even one should be considered a real treat.

May you do well, precious bird!

And for all of you raptor lovers...this is yet another reason to

KEEP LOOKING UP!!!!
C