Eagle help needed

[kenneth2019]

Shaky photos on phone thru scope, of what?

Eagle one by Kenneth Davis, on Flickr

eagle three by Kenneth Davis, on Flickr

eagle two by Kenneth Davis, on Flickr

[paulos]

These look like young Bald Eagles. They go through a bewildering number of plumages.

[paulos]

Also, when in doubt about eagles, the bill is a good giveaway. Bald Eagles have some giant shnozzes, Golden Eagles have little hawk-like bills. The difference can be visible at a surprising distance, as can the larger/longer head on the Bald in flight.

[kenneth2019]

Feb 6, 2022 19:38:49 GMT -8 paulos said:

Also, when in doubt about eagles, the bill is a good giveaway. Bald Eagles have some giant shnozzes, Golden Eagles have little hawk-like bills. The difference can be visible at a surprising distance, as can the larger/longer head on the Bald in flight.

As far as the shnozze goes, it was one of the things I could see that would would make me think it could be Golden and not another juvenile Bald, the cere being yellow not black.
There was only this one eagle at the transfer station.

The under tail was brown with cream patch.

It was perched the whole time I was there, so I was just using it as a study subject. Any comments are most welcome.

Thanks

[Jon]

Looks like a pretty typical imm Bald Eagle to me.

[paulos]

Hey Kenneth,

I'm particularly talking about the shape of the Eagle's bill. The colour can change over the age of the bird. But these are definitely Bald Eagles. The patchy white appearance below is also characteristic of some ages of immature Bald Eagle.

Golden eagles are either pretty uniform in plumage in adults, or very crisply dark with defined white inner tail feathers and inner flight feathers in young birds. With immature Bald Eagles in flight, you can often notice lots of white on the belly, breast or underwing coverts (not flight feathers), which is never shared by a Golden Eagle. This bird has that white patchy look on the breast.