Golden Eagle Research Paper

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Pages: 4

Species range and current status: The Golden Eagle is currently a candidate species in Washington State, but is not a candidate, threaten or endangered species federally (seattle.gov). The current range of the Golden Eagle is greater than 1,000,000 square miles (natureserve.org). They are most commonly found east of the cascade mountains, but there a few on the west side, and have been found as far east as Maine. However, there major abundance is the central to west side of the United States. Breeding occurs from western and northern Alaska, and south to northern Mexico, Texas, western Oklahoma and western Kansas (natureserve.org). They migrate a little in the winter for warmer climates, their winter range extends from south-central Alaska, …show more content…
The Golden Eagle lays eggs before late April, sometimes later in areas that still have snow, and the usually have them in late February or March (natureserve.org). They usually lay between 1-3 eggs, most of the time 2, females mainly do the incubation which lasts between 43-45 days (natureserve.org). Young birds begin to fly between 60-77 days, and then are typically cared for another 30 days; some families will stay together for a few months (natureserve.org). Golden Eagles typically first breed when they are 4 or 5 years of age (natureserve.org). Most, but not all, Golden Eagles mate for life. There is no specific time or distance when Golden Eagles migrate, and not all of them do, but some will fly south in winter for warmer climates (natureserve.org). They return to normal breeding grounds in March-April, and most will vacate hot desert areas during the summer …show more content…
In general, they in habitat open or semi-open area such as prairies, sagebrush, arctic and alpine tundra, savannah or sparse woodland and barren areas (natureserve.org).They are more commonly found in hilly or mountainous regions, with enough prey based nesting sites nearby (natureserve.org). In Nevada, the only habitats they tend to avoid are large agriculture areas and urban areas (natureserve.org).Throughout all their range, nest are most often found on rock ledges or cliffs, sometimes in large trees (natureserve.org). On the east side of the cascades, they are found in open ponderosa pine and steppe habitats near cliffs and plateau topography (seattle.gov). In western Washington, nests are mainly in large trees in mature old-growth forest near the edge of clear-cuts (seattle.gov). Most nests are currently found at or below canopy height, and were less than 500m from large clear-cuts (seattle.gov). Their home range size is typically between 23 and 192 square kilometers in the western United States