
Can you tell the difference between these 2 birds? If not, you should consider coming to the National Eagle Center’s Golden Eagle Field Trips.
Identifying bald and golden eagles in the wild can be a challenge. We are fortunate to be able to see both bald and golden eagles in the Upper Mississippi River region in the winter months. During the NEC Golden Eagle seminars and field trips, you will learn what to look for to distinguish bald and golden eagles, including juveniles. You’ll also gain valuable raptor field identification skills from experienced birdwatcher and NEC Education Director, Scott Mehus. Each field trip begins at the National Eagle Center at 1:00pm. After a brief classroom session learning tips for identifying golden eagles, participants will caravan out to a field site to observe golden eagles in the wild. Call (651) 565-4989 or email nationaleaglecenter@gmail.comfor details.

I’ve already had a couple of golden eagles show this fall during my travels so they are definitely back along the Minnesota/Wisconsin border. That’s a photo of a juvy golden that I got a couple of weeks ago. Not that eagle watching ever gets tiring but it is fun to pick the golden eagle needle out of the hundreds of bald eagles in the haystack.














Fasinating but now I’m confused. I was out at Sucker Lake in Vadnais Heights last weekend and got some photos of what I thought were juvenile bald eagles. Now I’m wondering if they might have been goldens. When three adult bald eagles showed up, the other left. Both groups seemed to like terrorizing all the duck though.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/mully410/6339302470/in/photostream/lightbox/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/mully410/6338550617/in/photostream/lightbox/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/mully410/6338551135/in/photostream/lightbox/
allaboutbirds.org hasn’t helped with this id yet.
Hi Craig–those are great photos. They are all sub adult bald eagles. A golden won’t have white on the head like that, if they do have white (juvenile birds) a golden will have a very uniform pattern of white underneath and not be splotchy like the birds in your photo. Also the beak is really chunky, it’s a bit smaller on goldens.
Thanks!