? for wildlife biologest on Eagles

cmiddleton

cmiddleton

New member
Does anyone have a picture of a sub adalt golden eagle?
The one i saw today looked full grown but had a white tail and white circles on his wings.
i have seen thousends of eagles but this one seemed different.
was this just a odd coler phase or a young one?
it was bigger than a bald eagle and didn't have a white head but the tail looked like a bald eagle tail.
i have never seen either kind have the white circles on both wings. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/confused.gif
i'm sure it was as big as a full grown golden eagle which is 1/4 bigger than a bald eagle. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/confused1.gif
 
A sub adult wouldn't be bigger than an adult.

BAEA-jPtLob4Sp06-LCarley2.jpg


http://birdcentral.net/baldeagle2.jpg

 
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i'm sure its a golden not a bald just by body size and wing span.
can they cross breed?
i think i'll see if i can find it sunday and try to get a picture.
i've seen bald eagles young they take time to fully develop a totally white head. they are smaller in body size then the bald adalt.
this one was big as a fully grown golden eagle.
 
i must have been blind my whole life because i've never noticed the white on the wings and this one has a complete white tail.
i thought it was different then average and i see alot of them.
goldens are bigger then bald eagles is the point i was trying to make
the circles were on the wing feathers and were visable with the wings closed.
i'm going to try to get a picture tomarrow.
i think its a odd color phase. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/confused1.gif
 
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Quote:
i must have been blind my whole life because i've never noticed the white on the wings and this one has a complete white tail.
i thought it was different then average and i see alot of them.
goldens are bigger then bald eagles is the point i was trying to make
the circles were on the wing feathers and were visable with the wings closed.
i'm going to try to get a picture tomarrow.
i think its a odd color phase. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/confused1.gif


I assumed that you were talking about the underside of the wing. Now you have me wondering. A picture would be great.
 
Bald eagle is going to have a beak as large as his head- look at YH's picture up above. That's an immature bald eagle. You can clearly see the big black beak and bare feet. When a bald eagle flies, you can clearly see the beak and the entire head seems to be almost as large as the tail, the wings are very straight, and the wingbeat is "stiff" compared to a golden eagle. Given all those characteristics, size is about the last thing I look at as a male golden can be smaller than many bald eagles. I've handled a few male goldens that were in the 7-8 lb range.

I seriously doubt they'd cross breed as they are two totally different genera- Haliaeetus and Aquila, fish eagle and "true" eagle.

You might have a color variation on this bird as stress will sometimes cause unusual white markings in many raptors. Imm. bald eagles can also have all kinds of weird white markings on them. And it's not totally implausible that you're looking at a stray White-tailed Eagle drifting over Russia- they've been reported in AK before. That'd be VERY unusual in WY, of course, but it never hurts to know what they look like. They're going to have the Big Bald Eagle Beak, though. I'd like to see a picture of your bird, for sure.

Here's a golden with white on the outside, from the same site as YH used and I've seen 'em with more white on the tail this, esp. a 1st year bird:
eagle10.JPG


FWIW, I made a living as a raptor biologist for about 15 years, worked for the Snake River Birds of Prey area and the Peregrine Fund, have been a licensed falconer for close 30 years, and have personally trapped about 30 golden eagles for radio transmitter studies (not to mention almost a hundred prairie falcons, and close to 1,000 accipiters). Plus I come from a ranching family and have seen eagles pretty much all my life.

My .02.


 
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yes it must have been a young one that picture is real close to the one i saw alittle more round on the white spots on the wings and the white seemed to go all the way out to the ends of the tail feathers.
i was hoping it was a oddity guess not.
made my day just watching it though even if i see several every time i go out there.
thank you
i am surprised i never noticed this before guess they are so commen i really must not have looked close enough.
 
Quote:
the one i saw alittle more round on the white spots on the wings and the white seemed to go all the way out to the ends of the tail feathers.



Like I said, I've seen some imm. goldens with a lot more white that the bird in the picture. Glad you got it, though. Keep an eye on it. Eagles are fun.

Here's a good story for you- I was trapping for my Master's thesis and a bunch of kids from Boise State's raptor program came up to visit. We're in the blind and a little hawk comes in and I caught it in the net. We always called our catches before getting them from the nets and everyone, w/out exception, incl. me and the class instructor, said "Sharp-shinned hawk". So, I walked out to the net and....it was a merlin. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smiliesmack.gif /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smiliesmack.gif I told everyone it was a rare "Changeable merlin" and I may have actually convinced a few of them. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif

Also that year, we trapped a broad-winged hawk (fairly rare for us) and that night at supper the guys from the lookout (trappers vs. lookout is a little like callers vs. hound guys... /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif ) said "Hey, did you guys see that pygmy redtail?" Us trappers looked at each other and said, smugly, "You mean the broad-winged hawk we caught at 14:37?" /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smiliesmack.gif /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/laugh.gif /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smiliesmack.gif

I have lots and lots of raptor stories!
 
i looked for him today and saw about 8 golden eagles but never saw him.
i found 23 deer sheds though so again i had a good day.
only 4 fresh sheds but thats the most i've found this year /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif
i had only found 1 fresh one tell today.
watched two hunting p.dogs they both got one /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/cool.gif but they were adalts
 
never ceases to maze me ask a question and somebody pops out of the woodwork who is an authority, very good NM HighPlains /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/ooo.gif /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grinning-smiley-003.gif
 
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