Hi Tweets,

Deb Beutler writes:

>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.

And the white patch is on the underside of the open wing only.

99% accurate Rule of Thumb: if the white's on the flight feathers, the
primaries and outer secondaries--as Deb describes above--usually the tail
also shows the 'ringtail': basal 2/3 white, terminal 1/3 dark, it's a juv
Golden (the white patches are called 'God's Eyes' by some Southwest desert
peoples); if on the coverts, a Baldie.

>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.

That's for sure: I've never seen on which didn't evoke a 'Wow, that's a
*humungous* Rough-legged Hawk." We don't see many here: Golden Eagles are
quite rare in Vancouver BC, limited to an individual or two wintering and a
*very* small northbound migration in Week 4 March--Week 1 April.

A caution: while most separations between these two species is usually
pretty straightforward, juv Bald Eagles have bigger, longer and rounder
secondary feathers than adults giving the wings more of the Golden's
elliptical wingshape. They sometimes bulk larger as well, distorting the
standard head/tail projection beyond the wings. A well-fed, robust all-dark
immature Baldie has and can be surprisingly hard to separate from an adult
Golden.

Michael Price We aren't flying...we're falling with style!
Vancouver BC Canada -Buzz Lightyear, Toy Story
mprice at mindlink.net