Nature » Fauna

Golden Eagle

Aquila chrysaetos

Size: length 75-85 cm, wingspan 200-220 cm.

How long it lives: 50 years.

What it eats: mammals (hares, squirrels, weasels, but also foxes or baby chamois or roe deer) and, to a lesser extent, birds (galliformes, corvids, and other raptors). In winter it commonly lives on carrions.

Reproduction: the pair builds the nest within its territory, on inaccessible cliffs, by using big branches and covering them with smaller branches and fresh leaves. Each pair has several nests: every year they choose one of them and "restore" it by adding extra branches and leaves. Two eggs are laid.

Chicks: born between April and May, a few days one from the other. The elder almost always kills the younger. In July-August the young eagle leaves the nest, but lives three or four months more with its parents before learning to hunt and becoming independent.

Curiosities: Golden Eagles are true to their partners for many years. Sometimes the two collaborate in hunting: while one of them flies low to frighten the prey, the other remains high, ready to capture it.

Remarks: it is one of the most magnificent raptors. It circles in the sky up to dizzy heights, taking advantage of ascensional currents and scanning the ground with its extremely powerful sight. Like all raptors, it has a sight sharpness at least eight times greater than the human one. It hunts on a vast territory, between the 30 and 100 square kilometers, diving from high up on preys.

In the Park: the territory is inhabited by eight pairs of Golden Eagle.