In my experience, the white stripe is only seen on juvenile Golden
Eagles. It is a single, discrete patch of white at the base of the
primaries rather than the messy, mottled white and brown all over the
underwings of juvenile Baldies. Adult Golden Eagles have dark underwings
appearing solid black from below.
Shape of the wings and distribution of white on the underwing is the
best way to tell a Bald from a Golden. Baldies are flying boards; wings are
straight as a board. Golden Ealges wings are more like very large, dark buteos.

At 11:38 8/11/97 -0800, you wrote:
>>------
>>There is a very vivid whte stripe that can be seen from below, above or often
>>while perched on the Golden Eagle. It can be seen in all plumages. If seen
>>from below it would have been immediatley noticable.
>>
>>Dave Shaw
>>Hills end at aol.com
>
>Really? Where do you see this white stripe? Most of the adult goldens I've
>seen have been completely dark.
>
>Rob Saecker
>Olympia
>
>
>
>

Deb Beutler
Department of Zoology
P.O. Box 644236
Washington State Univerisity
Pullman, Whitman Co., WA
dbeutler at wsunix.wsu.edu