I’m saying bald but I’ve only seen a handful of each. Idyll I saw two goldens multiple times in wester NM this September. They would camp out on power lines and hunt the prairie dogs that were every where. Even right next to the road they didn’t seam any bigger to me than the bald eagles I’m used to. Then again I assumed they were goldens, maybe they weren’t. Their under bellies had little or no color variation like Johns pic.
This bird is big. I saw it yesterday and did not have camera with me. Went back this morning and found him and snapped a few photos. Lot bigger than a hawk. Yesterday I thought it was a Golden still thought so until I looked at photos
Looks like a young golden to me. I've got several that roost near my house and I see them soaring almost daily in the summer.
Check that - Just looked at pics online. Definitely a young bald. I was remembering the white on the young goldens I see soaring above my house, but that white is mostly on the tail and middle of the wings. The eagle in your pics has the white scattered through its breast just like the pics on Audubon.
I pinned down some goose carcasses last Fall(after breasting out) and got several "birds of prey". I really thought one was a juvenile golden, but had several much more learned tell me it's just a juvi Bald Eagle. It looks a lot like the one you got pics of I think.
Both juvenile bald eagles. Juvenile balds will be mottled without white head until 4 years old. Goldens are solid brown even when juvenile except a white ban on the tail and bottom of wings.
Golden eagles are common in the mountain west and less so in the upper Appalachians. Pretty rare in the Midwest but we usually see a couple each year out of hundreds of survey hours.
Juvenile bald eagle. I live on a river and am lucky enough to see several bald eagles per week. My morning ritual through summer is sitting on the deck watching them course the river. There is a nest maybe 1/2 mile upstream from my back yard.
The thing I did not know until pretty recently, but which I think is very cool…
Juveniles look/measure larger than adults, because their first set of feathers are longer (and softer) than the adult feathers. They are less aerodynamic at speed, but provide more lift, so it’s sort of like a set of training wheels for birds.
I’m not saying that the juveniles are heavier than the adults, but they do have more wing surface area, apparently....
Juvie bald here as well, has too much white to be a golden. I agree with what the others have stated above, a bald eagle looks big, a golden looks like a B52 on approach, they are insane!
I've had goldens fly over me only 10 feet above my head. Think of a wingspan wider than a full sized Chevy pickup hood and you get the right idea. Juvie bald as well.
bad karma, that reminds me of a time I was in Bear Trap Canyon and a B-52 flew over at no more than 100 feet. The canyon walls and its speed masked the sound until it was right over my head, and I think I had to abandon a new pair of BVD's at that spot... sounds similar to your experience.
Hmm... Peterson Field Guide says that Bald Eagles have larger wingspans than Goldens. The Audubon website says they're roughly the same size. I'm wondering if the Goldens have a darker silhouette that may make them appear to be larger??
Looks like some of the juveniles I've seen around here. We have had a nice resurgence of balds in my area and I've been fortunate to see some adults up close. Very striking and huge!
We have Bald eagles staying all year now here in Sw Pa., neat to see. I see Goldens about 2 times a year. The difference is that immature Bald Eagles, as well as adults, are big graceful birds. A Golden looks like the Starship Enterprise on cruise.
Broad wings mottled colored, no under wing white patches nor white tail band, gonna guess juvenile Bald... The thick black beak confirms it's a first year bird...
Golden Eagle images attached from juvenile to adult...
Juvenile Golden Eagle: The head is dark with a noticeable golden nape and back of the neck. The gape and base of the bills are yellow. The tail is white in the base with a broad black terminal band. The breast and belly are uniformly dark brown. The back and upper sides of the wing are dark brown except for some white mottle in some individuals. The underside of the wing shows well defined white areas or panels The bill is dark in juvenile and adult birds. The legs are covered with feathers down to the feet. The eyes or iris remain brown.
Juvenile Bald Eagle: The head is uniformly dark brown but may have a variable amount of white mottling. The tail color pattern is variable. It can be dark with some white mottling or rather pale with brown streaks but not as clearly defined black and white as in the Golden Eagle. The breast is generally darker than the belly, which has a variable amount of white mottling. The back and upper sides of the wing have mottling that varies among each individual. The underside of the wing is heavily mottled with white in a haphazard manner. The bill is black for only part of the first year before beginning to turning yellow. The legs are bare and yellow. The eye or iris begins to turn pale by the second year and continues to reach the nearly white iris of an adult bird.
Agree with all that it is a juvenile bald. At my mom's cabin I once counted over 75 bald eagles sitting on the ice. There was a small open water spot on the lake that was full of snow geese and the eagles would congregate there. She once told me she counted over 100. Pretty amazing sight.
