Golden Eagle

Voice

Silent and rarely heard. At the eyrie and during February and March display a surprisingly weak, high yelping kyek-kyek or a mewing hee-yah carries, far thinner than the bird's size suggests. Begging young are noisier and audible at some distance in July.

Identification

Very large, with long wings pinched at the base, soaring in a distinct shallow V; the head projects noticeably and the tail is long and slightly rounded at the tip. Adults dark brown with a golden nape. Juveniles show sharply defined white patches at the base of the primaries and a white tail base with a broad black terminal band.

Confusion species

Bonelli's Eagle: smaller, white below with a pale mantle patch, and soaring on flat wings. Buzzard: far smaller and more compact with a short tail, yet deceptive at range — judge tail length, which in Golden Eagle exceeds the width of the wing. Young White-tailed Eagle: shorter wedge-shaped tail and broader, plank-like wings.

Habitat

Mountain country with cliffs for the eyrie and wide open slopes, alpine pasture and holm oak or pine woodland for hunting. In Spain also low sierras, crags above dehesa and dry steppe; takes rabbits, hares, marmots and partridges, and feeds heavily on carrion in winter.

Range and movements

In Europe chiefly the Alps, Carpathians, Scandinavia, Scotland, the Balkans and the whole Iberian interior — Spain holds the largest population in western Europe. Resident, with young birds wandering widely. In the Netherlands an exceptional vagrant, usually a northern or German wanderer.

• Resident
• Breeding (summer)
• Winter
• Passage
• Migration direction
• dark = core range, pale = thinly spread

Where and when to look

March to May, mid-morning as the first thermals build: take a viewpoint facing a large cliff — the Pyrenees, Sierra de Guadarrama, Monfragüe — and scan the ridge patiently. Undulating display flights with deep dives are most obvious in February and March.

Conservation status

Stable to slowly increasing in Europe after centuries of persecution, but recovery is slow because the species breeds late and rears few young. Illegal poisoning and killing linked to game interests, lead poisoning from carcasses, collisions with turbines and power lines, and disturbance of eyries by climbers and drones remain the main threats.