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Portrait of Golden eagle

Nature · Birds

Golden eagle

Resident · wingspan 190–225 cm

Aquila chrysaetos — Accipitridae (hawks, kites and harriers)

A great upland eagle of the Scottish Highlands and Islands, named for the golden hackles on its nape. It soars on long fingered wings held in a shallow V and hunts mountain hares, grouse and carrion over vast territories. Britain's population is stable at around 500 pairs, and translocations to the Southern Uplands since 2018 have restored eagles to the Scottish Borders for the first time in centuries.

How to spot them

  • ▸Long, broad wings with fingered tips, held in a shallow V when soaring
  • ▸Small head projecting less than the long, rounded tail — the white-tailed eagle's head protrudes further
  • ▸Golden-buff hackles on the crown and nape, catching the light
  • ▸Legs feathered to the toes, unlike a buzzard's bare yellow legs
  • ▸Juvenile has clean white patches at the base of the flight feathers and a white tail-base with a black band

How to know it

Soars on long fingered wings held in a shallow V, with a small head that projects less than its long rounded tail

Golden eagle — the structural tell against the white-tailed eagle's barn-door profile.

Named for the burnished hackles on its crown and nape; its legs are feathered right down to the toes

Golden eagle — Aquila chrysaetos, 'golden eagle'.

Some 500 pairs, nearly all in the Scottish Highlands and Islands, with a spectacular undulating 'skydance' display

Golden eagle — the 2015 national survey found 508 pairs.

Translocated chicks brought it back to the Scottish Borders from 2018, the first such population there in centuries

Golden eagle — the South of Scotland Golden Eagle Project.

Mountain hares and grouse are its staples, but it eats a great deal of deer carrion in winter

Golden eagle — a scavenger as much as a hunter in the Scottish winter.

Bird of the royal standard of Mexico and the national bird of five countries, it appears on Roman legionary standards as the aquila

Golden eagle — Aquila chrysaetos.

Quick-fire facts

  • •Scientific name Aquila chrysaetos, from Greek khrusos 'gold' and aetos 'eagle'
  • •The 2015 national survey found 508 breeding pairs in the UK; BTO BirdFacts rounds this to 510 pairs, and the population is broadly stable
  • •Green-listed in Birds of Conservation Concern 5 (2021) and on Schedule 1 of the Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981
  • •It is smaller than the white-tailed eagle, despite being the more famous of the two
  • •The last English pair, in the Lake District, ended when the lone male at Haweswater was last seen in 2015
  • •The South of Scotland Golden Eagle Project has translocated chicks to the Moffat Hills since 2018, taking the southern Scottish population to around 50 birds — more than at any time in three centuries
  • •The Roman legionary standard was the aquila, an eagle; the golden eagle is the national bird of Mexico, Germany, Austria, Albania and Kazakhstan
  • •A pair may hold a home range of 50 square kilometres or more, with several alternative eyries used in rotation
  • •It is the species in Tennyson's poem 'The Eagle' — 'he clasps the crag with crooked hands'

Drill it — 8 cards

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Sources