Animal · United Kingdom, United States, Canada
Golden eagle
Aquila chrysaetos — the name this animal has in the language scientists everywhere share.
The golden eagle is one of the largest and fastest birds of prey, soaring over mountains and open country across the Northern Hemisphere. Its golden-brown neck feathers give the species its name.
Picture credit: Serge Ottaviani (CC BY-SA 3.0) · Fernando Losada Rodríguez (CC BY-SA 4.0) · Fernando Losada Rodríguez (CC BY-SA 4.0) · Wikimedia Commons
Where does the golden eagle live?
Home: Mountains and open highlands across the Northern Hemisphere.
In the wild you find it in: United Kingdom, United States, Canada, Russia, Mongolia, Spain.
Conservation status from the IUCN: not in danger.
The short profile
Fully grown it measures 75–90 cm long, wingspan up to 2.3 m. It weighs about 5 kilograms. On the menu: meat.
The story behind it
Golden eagles hunt rabbits, marmots and other mammals, diving from great heights at speeds that can top 240 km/h, making them one of the fastest animals on the planet. A mated pair defends a huge territory, sometimes more than 100 square kilometres, and often uses the same nest for many years, adding fresh branches each spring until it grows enormous. Golden eagles have excellent eyesight, roughly four times sharper than a human's, letting them spot a hare from more than a kilometre away. They were once persecuted by farmers who feared for their livestock, but legal protection across most of their range has helped populations stay stable today.
Find it on the globe
Golden eagle is there as a tiny animated figure that breathes and looks around. From far away the planet is only a blue ball; detail arrives as you zoom in, and this one appears once you are close enough. Open it on the globe.
It sits at its real coordinates, not near them — the same numbers listed in the facts above. Switch off the layer for this kind of place and it disappears again; the buttons for that are down the right-hand edge.
Questions children ask
How fast can a golden eagle dive?
A golden eagle can dive at more than 240 km/h when hunting, making it one of the fastest animals alive. It folds its wings and drops steeply onto prey like rabbits or marmots below.
Where do golden eagles live?
Golden eagles live across mountains, moorland and open country throughout the Northern Hemisphere, from North America and Europe to Asia. They prefer wild, remote places with cliffs for nesting and open ground for hunting.
What do golden eagles eat?
Golden eagles mainly eat mammals such as rabbits, hares and marmots, but they will also take birds, reptiles and sometimes carrion. A hungry eagle can even work with its mate to hunt larger prey.
Where these numbers come from
Every figure on this page was checked against public reference sources before publication. Where sources genuinely disagree, the text says so.
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