Sent from Mail for Windows I know that many birders from out of Orange County, NY come to see the Storm King Mountain Golden Eagle, so hence this essay on this forum.
Thanks to all the birders entering their data in eBird we have good documentation of the Golden Eagle on Storm King for yet another year. A very few birders have the skills and equipment to photograph the species well, and many thanks to them. I had seen a recent report on the Orange County RBA of a Golden Eagle sighting by Mearns Club member Barbara Thomascall at Iona Island https://ebird.org/atlasny/checklist/S100714805 whose description “Large eagle with golden nape, two brown bands along back of wings, some pale on the flight feathers of the underside of the wing” seemed to me to suggest a subadult GE. All the photographs I’ve seen this year of the Storm King GE suggested a “more-than-one-year-old” GE, so I wondered whether there were more than one GE overwintering in the area. I looked at all the local eBird sightings for GE under Species Maps https://tinyurl.com/2p8wcmh3 I added in “Current Year” for Date Range and “Orange County” for Location. A singular focus on only 1 feature of GE by all reporters The feature described by almost everyone seems to be the golden nape to the exclusion of any other features of the species. At the I-84 Overlook Hawk Watch we have seen a number of subadult BE which “certainly seemed” initially to have convincing golden hackles/nape and a dihedral (BE at this location often have dihedrals because of the ridges) when they were really far away suggesting GE, but when they flew closer we realized they were Bald Eagle when we saw the diagnostic white axillaries or the oblique white line along the underwing. Remember, a ‘juvenile’ eagle is one in its 1st year of life. An ‘immature’ is all years other than adult (and includes juvenile). A ‘Subadult’ is all years other than juvenile and adult. Unfortunately other diagnostic features have been ignored by observers in their eBird reports such as the carpal bar (which is seen in flight on the top of the wings as a tawny oblique bar which is seen in all ages of GE except juveniles i.e. first-year birds). This is seen well in the eBird photographs of the perched Storm King GE – this is the broad tawny swath along the wing coverts/sides of the wing. This suggests an adult/subadult GE, definitely not a juvenile. It is well depicted in Sibley. Another feature that is diagnostic in flight which is not been mentioned at all in any reports in 2022 is the white at the base of the inner primaries both above and below the wings (which can rarely be absent), and white at the base of the tail on juvenile GE (always there). Interestingly both these white features can also be seen on 1st year/Subadult I GE. The white areas are prominent enough at the distance the GE is usually seen to be visible in binoculars and definitely with a scope. Older Subadult GE do not have white at the bases of the primaries but limited white at the bases of the outer secondaries and progressive loss of white at the base of the tail after subadult I (which does) with each year . At the I-84 Overlook Hawk Watch we had 27 Golden Eagle during the 2021 fall migration season including 8 GE in one day. Many of those eagles were as far as and further than the distance the Storm King Golden Eagle is usually seen at, so it is possible to see many or all of these features. Granted the bird has not been seen in flight too often but a golden (pardon the pun) opportunity has been wasted in not describing the bird well. The few observations of the GE in flight seem to assume the observer is seeing a GE without any doubt as it has been seen in the area, without mentioning any of the specific GE features other than the nape. None of the observers seeing the species in flight have described the absence of any features that are commonly seen with a first-year Bald Eagle to prove that what they saw was a Golden Eagle. They seem to have mostly assumed that they were going to see a GE at that location and identified it as such because of others’ previous eBird reports. There are many Bald Eagle wintering along this part of the Hudson River and are more often seen in flight, and overall in the area BE outnumbers GE! No reports of the GE flying have mentioned: • GE looking more like a buteo than a BE, with bulging “muscular” secondaries – GE • smaller head compared to the length of the tail (larger head in BE more than half the length of the tail, cf. GE which has a smaller head and longer tail) • Absence of white in the axillaries (on underwing) seen in BE • Absence of white diagonal along the underwing (along median coverts) seen in BE • if soaring, a dihedral on a GE, usually flat-winged on a BE • if it flaps, a GE ends its flap on an upstroke, while a BE ends its flap on a down-stroke and then flattens its wings out • No white on the breast or belly on perched and flying GE, which may be seen on a 2-3 year BE Evidence for more than 1 GE This checklist https://ebird.org/checklist/S100857664 has a good photograph showing white at the base of its tail and with black at the tip without any tawny carpal bar – suggesting that this is a juvenile GE. All other photographs on eBird checklists show a prominent carpal bar suggesting an an age other-than-juvenile = adult or subadult. This would suggest that there is more than one GE overwintering in the Storm King area - at least 1 juvenile and 1 adult/subadult in 2022. For purposes of better documentation and identification eBird does want us to identify any species with the greatest specificity, which includes age. https://support.ebird.org/en/support/solutions/articles/48000803130-how-to-document-your-sightings under Reporting Unusual Birds, suggested points are: • Note diagnostic features • Explain how similar species were eliminated • Note age and sex So all observers of the GE, please try and look for and add more written detail to your eBird reports and try to photograph the GE in flight. Ajit I. Antony, MD E. A.Mearns Bird Club I-84 Overlook Hawk Watch Hook Mountain Hawk Watch -- This email has been checked for viruses by Avast antivirus software. https://www.avast.com/antivirus -- NYSbirds-L List Info: http://www.NortheastBirding.com/NYSbirdsWELCOME.htm http://www.NortheastBirding.com/NYSbirdsRULES.htm http://www.NortheastBirding.com/NYSbirdsSubscribeConfigurationLeave.htm ARCHIVES: 1) http://www.mail-archive.com/nysbirds-l@cornell.edu/maillist.html 2) http://www.surfbirds.com/birdingmail/Group/NYSBirds-L 3) http://birding.aba.org/maillist/NY01 Please submit your observations to eBird: http://ebird.org/content/ebird/ --
