5 of 20

Write now Article Tools

The Golden Eagle (Aquila chrysaetos) a member of the Accipitridae family along with hawks is a carnivorous bird with an average lifespan of thirty-eight years in the wild and up to fifty years in zoos. It is also the largest bird of prey in North America and the national bird of Mexico. The Golden Eagle can also be found in Europe, North Asia, North Africa and Japan mostly living in the mountain areas where the climate is temperate. They used to be found in forest and plains as well.

The Golden Eagle is dark brown with lighter golden-brown colored plumage on the head and the neck. The body is thirty-three to thirty-eight inches long with a wing span of six and seven and a half feet wide. The golden eagle only weighs between six to fifteen pounds. (The females of the species are bigger than the males as adults.) The eagle has around 7,000 feathers. Extremely fast the golden eagle can come up on its prey at speeds over 150 miles and hour.

Their speed and sharp talons are used to grab up rabbits, marmots and ground squirrels. The Golden Eagle will eat carrion, reptiles, bird fish and some large insects as well. Full grown deer have even been attacked by the Golden Eagle. The talons are believed to be more powerful than the hand and arm of any person.

Ranchers used to kill the golden eagle because they thought they were a threat to livestock but the impact has been proven to be little. These magnificent birds are now a protected species.

Pairs of golden eagles will keep territories as large as sixty square miles and nest in high places; they are monogamous to their mate for years; possibly for a life time. Several different nests will be built by them in their territory over this time. The nest are made out of tree branches and grass in a tree or on the face of a cliff. The nest grows in size every year as material is added to them.

The golden eagle has a gestation period of forty-one to forty-five days and normally only lays two eggs a couple days apart between the months of January and May; the months depend on where the eagles live. The baby golden eagle known as an eaglet will hatch in the order they were laid and the first hatched will normally attack maybe even kill the younger eaglet. The eaglet reaches maturity at sixty-five to seventy days at the time of their first flight although they remain dependent on the parent birds for thirty days after this. The first hatched eaglet is normally the only one that makes it out of the nest.

The eaglets are duller than the adults with a more mottled appearance and a white-banded tail with a white patch on each of their wings that will eventually disappear with each molt. The full plumage of the adult Golden eagle doesn't appear until the age of five.

The largest golden eagle ever recorded was 3.4 feet long, twenty-six inches tall and weighed twenty pounds. The eyesight of an eagle is better than a human's eyesight and the eyes of a golden eagle take up most of the eagle's head. The eagle sees clearly and can see colors this allows them to see movements from long way away.

Sources:
http://animals.na tionalgeographic.com/animals/b irds/golden-eagle.html
http://w ww.sandiegozoo.org/animalbytes /t-golden_eagle.html

Learn more about this author, L. Beall.
Click here to send this author comments or questions.

Add your voice

Know something about Bird facts: Golden Eagle?
We want to hear your view. Write now!