Golden Eagle?

weebee

Senior Member
Wishful thinking. But if this is a juvenile Bald Eagle then it's huge. I'm thinking it is a juvenile Golden Eagle. Taken at Slaughter Beach DE. Didn't have a large lenses with me, darn it!

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nickt

Senior Member
I'm no bird expert. I've never seen a young golden eagle, so I don't know how similar they might look. This is my first eagle I ever saw around my area. I had no idea what it was. I thought it was a goose at first glance, but looked too big. Then I thought maybe a turkey, lol. I quickly snapped some pictures still not knowing what I was looking at and zoomed in later. There ended up being a few bald eagles in the area and they hung around turning to adults, so definitely a bald eagle in my shot. Note the full size duck that is not having a good day. The belly on mine is more white than yours, but he ended up changing to adult colors by spring. I saw some others during that winter that were more dark in the belly with just some white coming in under the wings. 'Huge' was my first impression of these birds.

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weebee

Senior Member
Here are a couple more from the the day before. Poor shooting conditions. Rain and heavy overcast. These are plainly Bald Eagles. I guess the size of the other one just threw me off.

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nickt

Senior Member
I've always thought they seemed huge on the ground, but I've only seen young ones on the ground. Then I just read that younger eagles can look bigger than adults due to longer, fluffier feathers.
 

Stoshowicz

Senior Member
I've always thought they seemed huge on the ground, but I've only seen young ones on the ground. Then I just read that younger eagles can look bigger than adults due to longer, fluffier feathers.
As far as I know, thats true, the younguns are in fact larger due to longer feathers , its ordinary for adult raptors to have more trim feathers than juvs , same as its functional for the males to be smaller and more maneuverable in the air, with females being able to dominate food items. If you look at wing outlines in flight, you may note the older feathers being replaced by shorter adult feathers.
In this photo its clearer that its a juv bald , with the oversized bill , usually the head on juv goldens is slightly paler than the rest of it , while for balds , you can see the breast feathers are in fact lighter- whiter at this stage , than the head is.
 
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