Golden eagle
Aquila chrysaetos
A large dark-brown eagle with a golden nape. Confirmed in Georgia as a year-round resident and breeder on the 2024 national bird checklist.
At a glance
Key facts in one look
Diet
Snowcock, grouse, hare
Status in Georgia
Year-round resident
Size
66–102 cm
Habitat
Mountain forest and alpine meadow
Family
Accipitridae
Conservation
VU / IUCN LC
Human interaction: It is not a threat to people on ordinary encounters. It has large talons; pairs defend nests. Do not handle it or approach nests. It is not venomous. Capture or killing of a Red List species is prohibited.
Overview
What is Golden eagle
The golden eagle (Aquila chrysaetos) is a large diurnal raptor (family Accipitridae). In Georgian it is officially მთის არწივი; ოქროსფერი არწივი is also used. The 2024 annotated checklist of the birds of Georgia lists the form as Aquila chrysaetos homeyeri (Mediterranean Golden Eagle) and codes it YR-R: a breeder present throughout the year. Seasonality is classed as high-quality (code A). Occurrence quality is high (H), with photographs. Adults are dark brown with paler golden to rusty feathers on the nape and hindneck. It is not a threat to people on ordinary encounters; nests should not be approached. IUCN lists the species as Least Concern. Georgia’s 2014 Red List treats it as Vulnerable (VU, D1). The 2024 checklist assigns national category LC; those two national assessments disagree.
Last updated
Gallery
Golden eagle in photos
Photo: Juan Lacruz
La Cañada, Ávila ·
Photo: Giles Laurent
Pfyn-Finges ·
Photo: Giles Laurent
Pfyn-Finges ·
Photo: Steve Maliszewski
Isle of Arran ·
Identification
How to identify Golden eagle
A large dark-brown eagle with a golden nape and a relatively long tail. In Georgia it is a year-round resident on the 2024 checklist. Juveniles have a white tail base and often white wing patches; adults do not.
- 01
Length about 66–102 cm and wingspan about 1.8–2.34 m at species level. NPLG gives wing 600–685 mm, tail 330–360 mm, and mass 3.5–4.5 kg; females are larger than males, with no colour difference between sexes. For subspecies A. c. homeyeri, literature gives male wing about 55–64 cm, female 60–70 cm, and mass about 2.9–6 kg. A separate measured series from Georgia is not given on this page. Adult upperparts and wings are dark brown; nape and hindneck feathers are paler gold or rust. The tarsi are feathered to the toes; the cere and feet are yellow, the talons black. In flight the wings are long and broad with fingered tips; the tail is longer than in several other large eagles.
- 02
Juveniles (the first several years) have a white tail base with a broad dark terminal band and often white patches on the underwing. Adults lose that contrast. Full adult plumage takes several years. Sex in the field is more a size judgement than a colour mark.
- 03
Eastern imperial eagle (Aquila heliaca) is a resident, migrant, and winter visitor in Georgia on the 2024 checklist; adults have a paler head and white braces on the scapulars and are more a bird of open lowlands than a typical high-cliff nester. Steppe eagle (Aquila nipalensis) is a summer visitor and migrant on that checklist, not YR-R. Greater spotted eagle (Clanga clanga) and lesser spotted eagle (Clanga pomarina) are more compact, with different underwing patterns. White-tailed eagle (Haliaeetus albicilla) is bulkier, with a wedge-shaped tail that is white in adults. Common buzzard (Buteo buteo) is much smaller. Griffon, cinereous, and bearded vultures have different silhouettes and flight. This atlas does not yet have separate pages for those eagles.
- 04
It is not a threat to people on an ordinary hike. Leave it alone. A large dark eagle with a golden nape in the mountains — or a juvenile with a white tail base — is more likely this species than a buzzard.
Biology
Habitat, diet, behavior, and conservation
Habitat and range
This page does not colour a municipality-by-municipality map. The 2024 checklist confirms country-level resident status but does not publish a regional gazetteer. Do not assume it occurs evenly in lowland towns or treeless Colchis plains. Abuladze and Shergalin (2002) link breeding to the southern slopes and spurs of the Greater Caucasus Main Ridge (including Gagra, Bzipi, Chkhaltha, Kodori, Svaneti, Egrisi, Racha, Kharuli, Alevi, Mtiuleti, Gudamakari, Kartli, and Kakheti) and, in the Lesser Caucasus, the Ajara–Imereti Ridge. In the nesting season it uses the upper forest belt and alpine meadows where open ground is available for hunting. In winter in Caucasia it is more nomadic and may appear in lowlands, plateaus, semi-desert, and floodplains of large rivers; coastal wetlands of the Black Sea are noted there as vagrant records. Caucasian nests they measured were at about 920–2400 m, most often 1400–1800 m; hunting grounds are often above the nest, toward the treeline. Named historical nest or egg records in Georgia: Lagodekhi Reserve, Matzimi Gorge, 1840 m (1978); Dariali Gorge on the Terek, 1480 m (1982); Bzipi Ridge (1984); Dusheti district, Lomisi Ridge, 1910 m (1988); Kazbegi district near Sno, 1870 m (1990); Borjomi Nature Reserve, Kvabiskhevi Gorge (1991). The Aragvi Protected Landscape website names the species among important local raptors; that is a park list, not a survey table published on this page.
Diet
Abuladze and Shergalin (2002) analysed prey from Greater Caucasia in Georgia and north-western Azerbaijan, 1977–1999: of 189 identified items, 88 (46.6%) were mammals and 101 (53.4%) birds. The most frequent were Caucasian snowcock (Tetraogallus caucasicus, 16.4%), European hare (Lepus europaeus, 12.7%), Caucasian black grouse (now Lyrurus mlokosiewiczi; listed as Tetrao mlokosiewiczi, 12.7%), and chukar (Alectoris chukar, 8.5%). Other prey included rodents, young chamois and domestic goat, martens, quail, domestic hen, and various woodland and cliff birds. Diet varied by year and site. Besides live prey it takes carrion, especially in winter, including remains of animals killed by wolves. That is a historical sample, not a 2020s national diet survey.
Behavior
It is active by day. Territorial pairs occupy nest areas for years; a pair may keep several nests (up to four in that study) and use them in rotation. In Caucasia Abuladze and Shergalin recorded no tree nests: sites were on inaccessible cliffs, niches, and canyon walls in the forest belt. Pairs appear at nest sites from late February to early March. Eggs are laid mainly in the second half of March; incubation is about 44–45 days. Of 41 monitored clutches most had two eggs (mean 1.85). Hatching was in the first two weeks of May; young left the nest from late July to early August. In all successful nests only one young fledged (n = 43). The 2024 checklist treats the species as a breeding resident in Georgia and does not code it as a passage migrant. In winter in Caucasia it is more nomadic than in the breeding season. It is often silent; NPLG gives a yelping “kek-kek-kek”. Do not handle wild birds or approach nests.
Conservation
BirdLife International assesses Aquila chrysaetos as Least Concern on the IUCN Red List (2021). The 2024 Georgian bird checklist assigns global and national Red List category LC. Government Decree No. 190 of 2014 lists the species on Georgia’s Red List as მთის არწივი, Aquila chrysaetus (spelling in the decree), status VU, criterion D1 (small population). That is the legal list; the 2024 ornithological checklist codes it LC nationally. The European Red List of Birds annex reports 25–35 breeding pairs in Georgia (2018–2019, partial method), a stable short-term trend (2005–2018), and an unknown long-term trend. Abuladze and Shergalin (2002) estimated not more than 30 breeding pairs in Georgia, about 20 on the southern macroslope of Greater Caucasia in the east, and discussed a possible rise toward 35–40 pairs in the 1990s. A complete 2020s national census is not on this page. The same paper links the historic decline mainly to 1940–1970, food shortage, traps, poisoned baits, nest disturbance, and the former campaign against birds of prey; by 2002 illegal shooting, traps, and poison remained the main threats. Do not catch or kill wild birds.
Questions
Frequently asked questions
Short answers to the most important questions about Golden eagle.
Yes. The 2024 annotated checklist of the birds of Georgia lists it as a confirmed year-round resident (YR-R): a breeder present throughout the year.
In the upper mountain-forest belt, rocky gorges, and nearby alpine meadows, mainly in the Greater and Lesser Caucasus. Named historical nest sites include Lagodekhi, Dariali, Lomisi, Sno, Borjomi’s Kvabiskhevi, and the Bzipi Ridge. This page does not map every region.
A large dark-brown eagle with a golden nape and legs feathered to the toes. Juveniles show a white tail base and often white wing patches. It is much larger than a buzzard.
About 66–102 cm long at species level, with a wingspan of about 1.8–2.3 m. NPLG gives mass as 3.5–4.5 kg; females are larger than males. A separate measured series from Georgia is not given on this page.
In a 1977–1999 prey sample from Greater Caucasia in Georgia and adjacent Azerbaijan the main items were Caucasian snowcock, hare, Caucasian black grouse, and chukar; it also takes carrion. That sample is historical.
All year, according to the 2024 checklist. It is in the mountains in the breeding season; in winter in Caucasia it is more nomadic and may appear in the lowlands.
Yes. YR-R on the 2024 checklist means resident breeder. In the Caucasian study eggs were laid mainly in the second half of March, and young left the nest in late July or early August.
It is harmless on ordinary encounters; do not approach nests. It is globally Least Concern. The 2014 Red List lists it as VU D1; the 2024 checklist codes it LC nationally. Do not catch wild birds.
- Budagashvili & Javakhishvili 2024 — The birds of Georgia (Sandgrouse 46)
- Abuladze & Shergalin 2002 — The Golden Eagle in North Caucasia and Transcaucasia
- BirdLife International 2021 — European Red List of Birds, Aquila chrysaetos
- BirdLife DataZone — Golden Eagle
- IUCN Red List — Aquila chrysaetos (BirdLife International 2021)
- საქართველოს მთავრობის დადგენილება №190 (2014) — წითელი ნუსხა
- NPLG Wiki Dictionaries — მთის არწივი
- IOC World Bird List
- ITIS — Aquila chrysaetos
- Aragvi Protected Landscape — ფაუნა
- Wikimedia Commons — Golden Eagle, La Cañada (Juan Lacruz, CC BY 3.0)
- Wikimedia Commons — Wild Golden Eagle in flight, Pfyn-Finges (Giles Laurent, CC BY-SA 4.0)
- Wikimedia Commons — Wild Golden Eagle in flight 016, Pfyn-Finges (Giles Laurent, CC BY-SA 4.0)
- Wikimedia Commons — Juvenile Golden Eagle, Isle of Arran (Steve Maliszewski, CC BY-SA 3.0)
Species profiles are compiled from peer-reviewed literature and established biodiversity databases, and are reviewed as new taxonomic and conservation data become available.
Related guides
